[kictanet] The tables are turned

[Eric Osiakwan]

Dear All,

We are really living in interesting times especially in the ICT  
industry because a few years ago, it was the mobile operators and  
ISPs who would be knocking on the doors of the regulator complaining  
and sometimes weeping at the anti-competitive practices of the  
imcumbent PTT towards them.

Today the tables have turned and in Kenya as per the story below,  
Telkom Kenya is rather asking CCK to put Safaricom in check because  
they are acting anti-competitively on the SMS platform against their  
CDMA operation. Five years ago, this would have being an "incorrect  
prophesy" but it has happen sooner than all would have expected.

What is more interesting is the fact that Safaricom is 60% owned by  
Telkom Kenya which is fully owned by government that means that the  
mobile operators have become so powerful that the combined years of  
PTT operation and their political forces cannot turn the tables  
except the mediation of the regulator. This confirms Russell  
Southwood's recent story of the emergence of the mobile operators as  
the new incumbents of our time.

May be one good thing is the fact that the mobile incumbents are so  
powerful that not a combiantion of PTT operation and political forces  
can impact them except the court of the regulator so the political  
leadership in some of our countries would now see reason to  
strengthen their regulators and make them independent enough to be  
the pivot to balance the weight of the mobile operators against their  
"cash cow" incumbents.

Eric here


Telkom Lodges SMS Petition Against Safaricom in Kenya
In the fight for control of Kenya's lucrative telecoms industry,  
competition is becoming a useful weapon in the hands of rival firms - 
especially those that need to play the catch-up game to remain in the  
race.
This market share war has become so intense that players are breaking  
all boundaries in the corporate rulebook.
Five months ago, mobile phone service provider Celtel took its bigger  
and only rival Safaricom before the market regulator, accusing it of  
playing unfairly in the market to the disadvantage of the consumer.
Now it is the national operator Telkom's turn to lodge a landmark  
complaint against its subsidiary -Safaricom.
In its letter to Mr John Waweru, the Communications Commission of  
Kenya director general, Telkom Kenya is accusing Safaricom of  
practising anti-competitive behaviour in the market -especially in  
the Short Messages Services (SMS) segment of the business.
Telkom says Safaricom has been blocking the exchange of SMSs between  
the two networks, thereby denying its customers access to key  
services that the national operator is offering such as the one that  
enables them to check their voter registration details with the  
Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK).
"Telkom Kenya is concerned that Safaricom is engaging in anti- 
competitive behaviour and in essence abusing its dominant market  
position by introducing barriers to new entrants targeting SMS market  
segment," Telkom says.
Public attention was first drawn to the matter after some Safaricom  
subscribers complained that Safaricom was charging them for  
undelivered SMSs to Telkom Kenya's Wireless network. SMSs to Telkom  
network got an automatic reply indicating that delivery had failed  
yet the consumers were being billed.
Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph acknowledged that some of its  
subscribers had sent messages to Telkom Kenya during the test period  
and may have been charged erroneously.
He said that although the company was not billing SMSs to Telkom  
Wireless network between August 13 and August 27, some of its  
customers may have been billed. Safaricom later agreed to refund the  
affected subscribers.
Telkom says that on August 16, the two interconnectivity negotiating  
parties met and agreed on interconnection rate and a technical  
testing schedule.
During this period the parties also exchanged SMS test templates to  
be adopted in the tests. Safaricom has however not cooperated in  
facilitating the process, making it unable to commercialise the service.
The matter seems to have reached fever pitch after Safaricom  
introduced a voter registry query service similar to the one Telkom  
Kenya had rolled out after it won an ECK tender.
Telkom Kenya is complaining that failure by Safaricom to activate the  
SMS service is affecting its ability to use an innovative platform  
that delivers voter registry query services by utilizing the 460  
numeric to access the ECK database.
Telkom Kenya says Safaricom acted maliciously in delaying to activate  
the SMS service only to launch a similar service.
"We are perturbed that Safaricom, having not been involved in the  
initial tender process is currently able to provide a similar  
services using the 460 prefix. This is a totally unacceptable anti- 
competitive behaviour," Telkom says.
Mr Joseph declined to comment on the matter saying it was already  
before an arbiter.
Telkom Kenya is the majority shareholder at Safaricom with a 60 per  
cent stake. It co-owns the company with the United Kingdom's Vodafone  
Plc which has a 40 per cent stake in the firm.
(Source: Business Daily)


Eric M.K Osiakwan
Executive Secretary
AfrISPA (www.afrispa.org)
Tel: + 233.21.258800 ext 2031
Fax: + 233.21.258811
Cell: + 233.244.386792
Handle: eosiakwan
Snail Mail: Pmb 208, Accra-North
Office: BusyInternet - 42 Ring Road Central, Accra-North
Blog: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/eric/
Slang: "Tomorrow Now"




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