[kictanet] Pondering mobile competition

Wed Aug 25 16:18:45 EAT 2010

my thoughts:

Zain has a wonderful infrastructure....though not covering the nation
completely....if they up their marketing....anything is possible!!!

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Andrea,
>
> yes, indeed these are interesting times. but not for me, at least not yet.
>
>
> The high costs of voice communications have for a very longtime socialized
> me into the (peculiar?) habit of NOT talking. I have grown used to
> alternative means of communication and just feel too old to suddenly start
> yapping. So of what use is 20bob, 8bob, 3bob, 2bob or even 1bob per minute
> voice call if I rarely talk anyway ;-)
>
> My prayer is that these price wars will eventually move over from the Voice
> to Data (internet) markets.  That will be the day I will really get
> excited...
>
> walu.
> nb: me-still-thinks Zain will not cause any significant dent on Safcom 80%
> existing market share but shall instead gain 80% of all the NEW subscribers
> over the next couple of months...but perharps am just being biased since am
> told the Zain new owners have the money to sustain "loses" for longer
> periods of time(even 5yrs) in order to cause a serious dent on the market
> leader's position. May the best man and woman win.
>
>
> --- On *Tue, 8/24/10, Andrea Bohnstedt <
> andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Andrea Bohnstedt <andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Pondering mobile competition
> To: jwalu at yahoo.com
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 4:38 PM
>
>
> The 'abuse' complaint was silly, I think: Zain's network was congested from
> day one of their tariff launch. I'm sure, very very sure, that telecoms
> professionals at both Zain and Bharti are, well, professional enough to
> anticipate the need to increase network capacity if they launch such an
> aggressive tariff.
>
> You've seen the fun little leaked exchange between Rene Meza and Michael
> Joseph - Zain approached Safaricom in the evening asking for capacity on the
> Safaricom-owned link, and Joseph promised to look into this in the morning.
> The interconnection agreement between both companies states that this
> protocol can take up to seven days, as far as I understand.
>
>
> http://www.ratio-magazine.com/201008203586/Kenya/News-Analysis-Telecoms-Price-Wars-Gone-Dirty.html
>
> Either they could have just increased capacity before the launch, or, if
> they were worried about alerting Safaricom to this, then just suck up and
> tell customers that the network will be congested for another seven days.
>
> So for Zain to come out the next morning and shout about abuse is dishonest
> and a cheap marketing ploy that I think they really don't need.
>
> I'm a happy capitalist. Competition is a good thing, in Kenya as elsewhere.
> So I'd like them to compete on the strength of their services and concepts,
> not by overnight accusations of 'abuse'.
>
> Mind you, if Zain kill of Orange and Essar, we'll have a bit less
> competition in terms of numbers, but hey ... :)
>
> Happy phone calls,
> Andrea
>
>
>
>
>
> On 24 August 2010 14:34, Emmanuel Khisa <oloo.khisa at googlemail.com<http://mc/compose?to=oloo.khisa@googlemail.com>
> > wrote:
>
> Hi Andreas,
>
> You have spoken for me on this one...I have also wondered since zain/bharti
> lodged their complaint with CCK over clogged network, were they just playing
> spoilt kid or do they have a valid claim? My opinion is that since they have
> experienced an unanticipated rise in subscribers they didnt have the network
> infrastructure to support these calls and so quickly blame the rival and
> make them look bad. But then again maybe they have a valid case against the
> boys in green.
> Nonetheless the winner here is the consumer. Shall we safely say that we
> have entered the third mobile revolution.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 1:56 PM, Andrea Bohnstedt <
> andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com<http://mc/compose?to=andrea.bohnstedt@ratio-magazine.com>
> > wrote:
>
> I'm wondering:
>
> Will CCK strictly enforce the cut-off deadline for unregistered SIM cards
> at the end of August? Are Zain making sure that everyone picking up a new
> line also register them immediately?
>
> If price war is Zain's strategy, will they have enough money left to invest
> in infrastructure and customer service once their subscriber numbers go up
> significantly? Will they be able to scale up both systems quickly enough?
>
> Telkom Orange are cited in the media as complaining that the interconnect
> rate also applies to their fixed line service and that this is not even
> covering their costs (
> http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Telkom%20unhappy%20with%20interlink%20fee/-/1006/995372/-/o9pm5az/-/).
> I wonder if the two big ones having it out won't kill the two small ones
> first?
>
> Bharti/Zain have also launched free sms alongside lower on and off-net
> calling rates and free minutes in Nigeria:
> http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/?sid=1652_Bharti+subsidiary+Zain+introduces+free+SMS+in+Nigeria
>
> Happy afternoon,
> Andrea
>
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>
> --
> Andrea Bohnstedt
> Publisher
> +254 720 960 322
> www.ratio-magazine.com
>
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“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and
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