[kictanet] The tables are turned

Mon Oct 22 16:53:52 EAT 2007

What you have not mentioned whether the complaint had any merit and
whether the Parties could not have resolved it between themselves rather
than relying on the CCK to mediate every commercial dispute. There is
much more to this than just the one-sided view quoted by the media but
we have chosen not to try to resolve our disputes through the media.

Regards

Michael

CEO

Safaricom Limited

________________________________

From: kictanet-bounces+mjoseph=safaricom.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+mjoseph=safaricom.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke]
On Behalf Of Eric Osiakwan
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 12:27 AM
To: Michael Joseph
Cc: APC - Private list for use by EASSY Workshop Participants; KICTAnet
ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] The tables are turned

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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