[Kictanet] Day 4 of 10: What are the Existing/Sugested legal and regulatory framework for OFC?

[Alex Gakuru]

Hi all,

I am on this list now especially because of the line "Consumers are particularly encouraged to say something.."  and that Bw. PS sent my message to this list a last week.

This a bit of a changa moto so hold on to your seat belt and let us think "out of the box " for a while 

John Walubengo <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:
> there is very little option. 

Yes and No. There is of course the third option where we could seek customer-consumer owned fibre, we lay it and lease management to ISPs at our own terms. This is out of concerns the 1999 started liberalisation, have only resulted in increased and sustained high consumer price, For example, we used to call for 1 bob a minute on landlines, but today  7 bob per minute???  
Therefore,  even when fibre cables come, internet costs will rise?
 
Incidentally fibre costs US$1 (one dollar) per meter, and is available locally. Going by what happened when government water systems collapsed decades ago, communities got together started self-help water projects that are very successful today. We have been seeking  government support on this initiative though none has been forthcoming, this far.

Canadians and Americans started a "fibre to the people" campaign in 2000, after they got fed up of waiting for big investors to take fibre rural. There was no "business case", they argued. Today, rural Canada homes are  enjoing  1 gig to the home.  

Infrastructure challenges are recognised by the ICT Policy an the government states it commitment to facilitate the deployment.
      
>The current practice is simply NO Regulation by virtue of the fact that most >OFC is laid out by Private sector with commercially agreed private contracts.  

Study the Malta case, The British government wanted to regulate their satellite  internet access and what happened...? Users installed concealed sat dishes on at secret locations which tired of dismantling, the regulator finally yieled and allowed   anyone to access satellite internet so long as they just registered.

Today, Malta has about 68-70+ internet penetration.
 
>These are kept confidential until or unless a dispute arises in which case it is >resolved through existing Company Laws or Competition Laws. None-Regulation > has therefore served well in managing Private sector investements.

Question: Does the private sector do Kenya a favour to invest or do they follows the "business case" before burying their money? 

Q: Have policy makers been over protective of investors against every thing else, even the consumers  who were supposed to enjoy lower prices and better quality services?

Q: That secrecy... haiya yaya yaheee, weee!
 
>Open Access Regulatory frameworks 

A government-driven investment cable guaranteeing anyone to connect to the it a at pre-agreed rates. This way, communities and customers can connect their  own networks to the backbone at the most competitive prices. 

This would of course require the current market licensing structure to be scrapped and replaced with a consumer friendly one.

May be some more later?

Alex Gakuru

 
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