[kictanet] Sharing the airwaves: can Kenya’s 4G partnership work?

Tue Dec 21 09:55:41 EAT 2010

Hi Walu,
If I may throw in my two bits.  If the 3rd party is organised as a
consortium (and not a new licencee per se), like Eassy/TEAMs, with everyone
having a stake and therefore able to protect their interests, THEN this
could work.   Much like having KIXP - well that may not be the best example
but I think it could work within the right framework.  I think it also
furthers the spirit of competition by allowing even the smaller operators a
chance to innovate and add value where big operators fall short of being
intimate and responsive to customer needs. We have constantly heard about
customer service issues mainly with the big operators (i.e. too big to offer
personalised attention).

On 21 December 2010 09:39, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Alice,
>
> Interesting Policy decision - I didnt know the govt/regulator had opted to
> place the 4G airwaves (the 2.6Ghz Band?) under a "managed-infrastructure"
> arrangement. As Russell rightly puts it in his analysis -  its quite a risky
> proposition.  I can expect the big players not being too comfy having to
> "hire" bandwidth/network resources from a 3rd party in order to deploy their
> 4g services, but at the same time the small players would be extremely happy
> to run 4g services on a "hired" basis. (By the way, I thought Safcom already
> had 4g license a while back..)
>
> And yes, more problems for the Regulator - how do you "manage" the
> "managing agent" who is licensed to hire out the bandwidth? How can you
> ensure that the managing agent is not provisioning the infrastructure in a
> way to hurt or favour one of the Operators i.e is not biased? An even before
> that, what criteria is used to identify the managing agent (auction, beauty
> contest, political contest?)
>
> mmhh..I guess more qtns than answers.
>
> walu.
> --- On *Mon, 12/20/10, Alice Munyua <alice at apc.org>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Alice Munyua <alice at apc.org>
> Subject: [kictanet] Sharing the airwaves: can Kenya’s 4G partnership work?
> To: jwalu at yahoo.com
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Monday, December 20, 2010, 10:27 PM
>
>
>
> http://www.analysysmason.com/About-Us/News/Insight/Kenya_4G_partnership_Dec2010/?journey=117,55
> ,
>  Sharing the airwaves: can Kenya’s 4G partnership work?
>
> 20 December 2010
>
>  <http://www.analysysmason.com/People/Robert-Schumann/>
>
> “Making this 4G plan work will be a challenge for the selected network
> manager ... and for those charged with monitoring its performance.”
>
>   The Kenyan government has recently put forward a plan to simultaneously
> promote cost-effective use of the 2.6GHz band and save operators from having
> to spend money in an auction. The plan is to offer the management of the
> band (up to 190MHz of spectrum, which is suitable for high-speed mobile data
> services) to an independent company in order to create an open access
> wholesale network. Operators would purchase capacity from the company, and
> bundle it into packages and products that they would sell in a competitive
> market to retail customers. The end result would be a single, highly
> utilised network with low unit costs.
>
> The plan sounds good, but the country’s government could be ‘jumping from
> the frying pan into the fire’.
> The frying pan may not have been that bad, after all
>
> Why does the Kenyan government feel wary of assigning spectrum to
> individual operators? The reasons suggested by Bitange Ndemo, Permanent
> Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications, include:
>
>    - high prices paid in an auction lead to high prices charged to
>    consumers
>    - operators failing to honour roll-out commitments
>    - an auction would have 19 potential buyers and room for only three
>    winners, so would discriminate against those that could not afford it.
>
> Do high auction prices lead to high prices for consumers? Actually, it is
> the other way around: if operators can charge high prices, they will be
> willing to place high bids at auction. Service providers can charge high
> prices if there is limited supply of their product or of reasonable
> substitutes – and low auction prices do not guarantee low service prices.
> Furthermore, it is possible to design award processes to achieve ends other
> than extracting maximum revenue.
>
> The 2.6GHz spectrum is unlikely to attract 19 serious bidders, given that
> it is relatively poor for providing coverage outside urban areas. A new
> entrant operator that aims to launch services based on this spectrum may be
> aiming to target a niche, such as medium-sized and large enterprises in
> urban areas. Giving them a chance to do this may be useful, but not as
> useful in expanding access to broadband as, for example, raising money in an
> auction to fund rural access.
> Think carefully before jumping into the fire
>
> Kenyan policymakers have correctly identified that greater supply (and more
> competition) is the key to reducing mobile broadband prices. They have also
> commendably declined to squeeze auction revenue out of operators. However,
> their solution turns away from infrastructure-based competition, which has
> revolutionised the telecoms industry during the past few decades. Will their
> alternative approach, which focuses on retail competition, work?
>
> The bad news is that pure wholesale business models for mobile data have
> not done well in the past. Reasons include difficulty in developing
> ‘one-size-fits-all’ wholesale tariffs, absence of profitable voice services,
> and dependence on the strategy and performance of other operators.
>
> The better news is that network-sharing deals can work. Operators around
> the world are signing deals to share radio access networks.1 In all
> likelihood the critical feature is that the retail operators have a strong
> interest in the entity that runs the network: financial interest to ensure
> that it makes a success of the services, and management interest to allow
> flexibility and tailored ‘tariff plans’.
>
> Tantalisingly, the arrival of Indian-style telecoms in Africa (led by
> Airtel, among others) may naturally lead to greater sharing (and price
> cuts), without the need for government intervention.
>
> It is clear that making this 4G plan work in Kenya will be a challenge for
> the selected network manager (a “group from the USA” has been mentioned as a
> candidate). It will be even more of a challenge for those charged with
> negotiating an agreement and monitoring its performance.
> ------------------------------
>
> *This Insight article is based on an interview conducted by Russell
> Southwood for Balancing Act Africa. Please **click here*<http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/en/issue-no-532>
> * to view the full article.*
>
> *Analysys Mason has experience in developing concrete, coherent **national
> broadband plans*<http://www.analysysmason.com/About-Us/Offices/New-Delhi/CII_broadband_report/>
> * and in **spectrum policy and auctions*<http://www.analysysmason.com/Consulting/Services/Strategy-consulting/Spectrum-management/>
> *.*
> ------------------------------
>
> 1 For further details, see Analysys Mason's Insight article *Wireless
> infrastructure sharing saves operators 30% in capex and 15% in opex*<http://www.analysysmason.com/About-Us/News/Insight/Wireless-infrastructure-sharing-saves-operators-capex-and-opex/>
> .
>
>
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