[kictanet] CCK cuts number portability fee for mobile user

Wed May 19 14:54:38 EAT 2010

@Andrea,

the way i understand number portability (and i wish the guys in the industry/regulation could confirm) is that me as a Safcom subscriber, would approach Zain and tell them I am tired of the high costs and want to shift. 

Zain would then record my Safcom number and do some Backoffice operations with Safcom/Regulator which will conclude with them signing me up as their (Zain) customer WITHOUT me changing from my Safaricom (072xxxx) number to their Zain number. As a customer I wont have to worry about these back office technical and administrative exchanges.

What matters is that from that point going forward, I will be a Zain customer without losing my number and by extension, I avoid the need to inform my 1,000+ contacts of my new number - which according to theory is one the key barriers to customer migration. So to answer your question - will you know which network you are on? -yes, because you will be legally and businesswise a Zain customer.  And so Zain Intra and Extra-network calls tariffs will apply -both of which have come down anyway :-(, someone from Zain needs to pay me for this free marketing.  

The only problem ofcourse will be what happens to your M-Pesa, M-Kesho and M-Whatever comes up from the endless innovation of Safaricom. If Number portability is allowing you to migrate voice only, then its impact would be quite minimal. Infact Safcom may harvest some customers instead?....Sam Gatere has already  asked about this and hope someone gives us an answer. ...

walu.

--- On Wed, 5/19/10, Andrea Bohnstedt <andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com> wrote:

From: Andrea Bohnstedt <andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] CCK cuts number portability fee for mobile user
To: jwalu at yahoo.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 1:54 PM

Possibly a dumb question, but once we have number portability, I won't know if I am making a call on the same network or not, right? So no way of avoiding higher cross network charges? 

On 19 May 2010 07:46, muriuki mureithi <mureithi at summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

Hi listers

On the day MNP becomes operational,  the market dynamics for the growth

sector will change,  Safaricom will focus on retaining their customers

while the other competitors will exert their energies to entice customers

out of    Safaricom. For the other operators,  its much cheaper to capture

new customers from Safaricom  than make   huge investments to sensitise and

educate new customers whose capacity to pay is increasingly  lower .  With

energy focused inwards  , who will grow the market and increase the national

penetration? Considering that the 60% of our  economy is based around

Nairobi, it certainly will not make sense to focus on the rural areas where

huge investments are required - instead just cannibalise the existing market

and penalise the rural effort .

CCK should consider  a package to go hand in hand with introduction of MNP

to ensure that the market grows to bring on board the 50% who are not yet

included in the mobile revolution..

Cheers

Muriuki Mureithi

-----Original Message-----

From: kictanet-bounces+mureithi=summitstrategies.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke

[mailto:kictanet-bounces+mureithi=summitstrategies.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.k

e] On Behalf Of alice at apc.org

Sent: 18 May 2010 15:20

To: mureithi at summitstrategies.co.ke

Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions

Subject: [kictanet] CCK cuts number portability fee for mobile user

 By Okuttah MarkPosted Tuesday, May 18 2010 at 00:00

Mobile phone subscribers intending to switch their current operators but

still retain their number will only pay a one off fee of Sh200 and not

Sh1,000 as had earlier been proposed, the industry regulator has said.The

Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) had earlier, when seeking comments

from the telecommunication operators, proposed Sh1,000 and an extra two

shillings on top of the current tariffs, a fee that industry experts and

telecommunication operators warned could inhibit the uptake of the

service.CCK said number portability would make it easier for subscribers to

retain their numCCK cuts number portability fee for mobile usersbers

whenever they decide to change service providers and also enhance

competition in the sector.On Friday, CCK said it had settled for a one off

fee of Sh199.80, the winning bidder (Porting Access BV Netherlands) had

quoted and that no other extra fee will be incurred by the subscribers apart

from the prevailing tariffs charged by the operator at the time of switching

over.Mobile subscribers are expected to start utilising the service before

the end of the year."A one-time porting fee of Sh199.80 will be charged by

porting subscriber. If there are services a subscriber still wishes to enjoy

then that's enough reason why he should not port out. But a subscriber can

port back to his former network if attractive services are introduced ,"

said Mr Mutua Muthusi, assistant director, public relations and

communication."Porting service will only enable you to retain the number you

were assigned by Network X while in Network Y. You will retain no

relationship with your former provider if you decide to port out."Zain Kenya

says other than the porting fees, there may still be other costs arising

from interfacing the equipment of various operators with the data base

manager, as it is not clear who will bear such costs or that of upgrades for

interfacing with the database.Mr Rene Meza, the managing director of Zain

Kenya, says the company has started positioning ahead of the implementation

of the number portability service because it believes that customers will

move to the operator that offers best value and that there are still issues

to be sorted out such as interoperability of the money transfer systems."At

present, the money systems of various operators are not fully integrated or

interoperable. We believe it is just a matter of time before regulators,

especially the Central Bank, begin to push for full integration and

interoperability," said Mr Rene.Last Thursday, the operator reduced its

calls to other networks to six shillings from Sh12 from 6pm to 6am and three

shillings for calls made on its network.A subscriber switching or migrating

from operator X to Y can only switch back to his previous operator after

paying another similar porting amount.Once a subscriber has crossed over to

another network, he cannot enjoy any of the services provided by the former

operator.This means that if a subscriber switches from operator X to Y and

is travelling abroad, the subscriber will be charged roaming charges by the

operator he has migrated to and not what the former operator was

charging.This also touches on customer care services or any complaint that

the subscriber may want to raise about network quality or pricing.Porting

Access BV Netherlands clinched the deal, beating Seven Seas Technologies

(Kenya, Infozillion (K) Ltd, Pluton ICT Ltd (Kenya), Teletech from Slovenia,

Saab Grintek Technologies (South Africa) and Systor Group of Companies.The

implementation of mobile number portability is part of measures that the

regulator has come up with to enhance competition in the sector.The sector

has four mobile operators and close to 20 million subscribers, but 78 per

cent is controlled by the leading mobile provider Safaricom.Analysts say

attachment by many subscribers to their user numbers has prevented millions

from changing service providers despite the marked differences in pricing

and quality of service offered by the different players.Retain numberCCK

says number portability should enhance competition and consumer convenience

in the telecommunication sector by "enabling consumers to retain their user

numbers whenever they decide to change service providers."That means

subscribers do not have to invest in new SIM cards or carry a number of

handsets to enjoy the services of other operators.It also enables consumers

to make use of alternative networks in an area where one provider has no

footprint or is experiencing a network problem.

Source:

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Company%20Industry/CCK%20cuts%20number%20

portability%20fee%20for%20mobile%20users/-/539550/920330/-/item/1/-/chb9i8z/

-/index.html

Sent from my BlackBerryR smartphone from Zain Kenya

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