[kictanet] Week 1 Online Discussion Summaries- CCK Internet Report(Resending)

[John Walubengo]

Hi all,

I went off-air for a while - actually I travelled upcountry
to my parents home in Bungoma -its a remote town from
NRB(450Km away) but the 2nd largest town in Western
Province and yes, Internet access in those parts of the
world is quite a challenge.  But that's a story for another
day...

Today, I thought it would be nice to reflect on last weeks
contributions before we move into the this final week's
discussion.  Tomorrow we start on the theme 'The Statistics
on Affordability', but below I have put together what I
think was last weeks summary contribution and hope you can
go through it and raise  final (if any) comments on last
weeks themes.  These were International Bandwidth,
Heirarchy of Providers(ISP/IGO) and the Statistics on
Infrastructure.  

---Last weeks summary begin-----
Week 1 Summary.

Day 1:Background Concepts/Overview

Mr. J. Walubengo gave an overview of the Internet Study
report saying that it aimed to establish the status of
Internet Infrastructure, Internet Affordability and
Internet Use & Dispersion in Kenya.  He reported that the
study had various recommendations aimed at improving on the
above internet indicators.  This included amongst others;
getting the government intervention in extending the
domestic internet infrastructure, introducing further
competition both within the Fixed Line and Mobile
subsectors, utilizing the Universal access fund to extend
Internet reach, promoting creation and use of local content
as well as supporting Consumer Awareness initiatives.

Mr. A. Gakuru lauded the study as well as its
recommendations but noted that a similar study would be
required that focused on the demand-side rather than the
Supply-side of the internet market.  He was glad that the
Regulator was finally making deliberate efforts to support
consumer awareness initiatives.  He wondered if naming and
shaming those ISPs that failed to route traffic through the
local internet exchange point (KIXP) would help in
enhancing the use of KIXP.

Day 2: International & Domestic Bandwidth Usage 

In his opening remarks, Mr. Walubengo said that the report
indicated that the International Internet Traffic was
skewed (90%) towards external  sources (content).  Kenya
was a net importer of Internet content and was therefore a
consumer rather than a creator of Internet content. Value
(economic or otherwise) goes to the creators of Internet
Content and Kenya should aim to be a generator rather than
just consumers of Internet Content.

Mr. M. Michuki observed that most Kenyans visited external
sources due to lack of local content. He suggested that
ISPs should come up with pricing smodels that encouraged
the creation of and access to local content. For example,
geo-specific tariffs could be designed that would
deliberately make it cheaper to access local (.KE) conent
i.e. users could be charged less if and when they accessed
or used local  services(local websites, emails, etc) as
opposed to foreign services. In addition, ISPs could come
up with time-based tariffs that took advantage of the
traffic models registered on the KIXP i.e. provide even
lower rates for local content during evenings and
weekends.He however conceded that Online Government
Services, eHealth, eBanking, eLearning, etc would have to
be in place in order to make such pricing models
successful. Mr. J. Ngunjiri added that training or capacity
building initiatives must also be supported to further
gaurantee the success of the initiative. 

Day 3:  Hierarchy of Internet Service Providers (IGO,ISP)

The Internet Study Report recommended that the seperation
between Internet Gateway Operators (IGO) and Internet
Service Providers be dissolved with expected results being
cheaper and higher quality services.  In his opening
remarks, Mr. Walubengo asked members to react to this
recommendation.

Lucy Kimani wondered if IGO would be able to cope with the
technical and administrative overheads experienced by ISPs
such as a larger number of customer accounts, increased
need for support services, etc.  She added that the cost of
services may not come necessarily  come down as expected
due to the need to cover such overheads.  Mr. Walubengo
cited the case of TKL (Telkom Kenya) who are currently
operating at both the Gateway and the ISP level without
significant cost reductions in their Internet Service. 

Mr. S. Buruchara felt that historically, ISPs have had a
rough time in trying to set up their own Internet Gateway
Operations - having been forced by regulation to route
their traffic through expensive and monopolistic Internet
Gateways.  He argued that if the upstream providers (IGO)
were expensive, it was only natural that these costs would
be passed downstream to the consumers.  In addition, he
noted that even todate the Licensing requirements were
still prohibitive (expensive) for ISPs to move into the IGO
level and if they did, they may need to recoup their
(Licensing & other) investments at the expense of offering
cheaper Internet Access rates.  Mr. Kai Wulff commented
that giving ISPs the IGO facilities may not necessarily
reduce prices, citing case of Uganda where internet costs
are still high despite many ISPs having IGO facilities.

Day 4: Statistics on Infrastructure

The report indicated that ISPs (internet services) were
only operating in 30% of the districts in Kenya. The leased
line services were mainly concentrated in urban centers
(NRB & MSA) meaning that Internet Infrastructure was
clearly challenged and the Report urges Government to
intervene by leading the build-up of Internet/Network
infrastructure accross the country.  

In her reaction, Alice Munyua, said that a comprehensive,
multi-pronged approach must be made to avoid having
infrastructure that would eventually serve no purpose. 
Aggressive infrastructure build up without content would be
an exercise in futility since the internet pipes would be
idle and underutilised most of the time.  She added that
additional initiatives such as Construction and Supply of
Electrical Power, Literacy Initiatives, Local Content and 
'Demand-side' Internet Requirements must move side by side
with the infrastructure roll-out.

Day 5- Statistics on Affordability will be on tomorrow
(thrs 3rd May) morning. Today is open for final comments on
the Day 1, 2, 3 & 4 Themes.

walu.

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