[kictanet] CCK cuts number portability fee for mobile user

Wed May 19 15:09:14 EAT 2010

I think what Andrea has asked is; how will you know that the person you
are calling is on the same network? In the example below by Walu, you
may have moved to Zain but everyone could assume that you are still with
Safcom because of your 072XXX number. This lack of awareness is a
drawback to MNP as callers experience 'bill-shocks' when they discover
that they have been calling an off-net number.

Andrea; to answer your query, where MNP has been introduced operators
are requested by Regulators to notify a caller that the call they are
making is off-net, this can be done through a pre-recorded message or a
tone. 

We hope CCK shall invite operators to discuss this and other regulatory
issues surrounding the technical aspects of porting.

Steve 

________________________________

From: kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Walubengo J
Sent: 19 May 2010 14:55
To: Stephen Chege
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] CCK cuts number portability fee for mobile user

@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%20numbe
r%20
portability%20fee%20for%20mobile%20users/-/539550/920330/-/item/1/-/chb9
i8z/
-/index.html
<http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Company%20Industry/CCK%20cuts%20numb
er%20%0Aportability%20fee%20for%20mobile%20users/-/539550/920330/-/item/
1/-/chb9i8z/%0A-/index.html> 
Sent from my BlackBerryR smartphone from Zain Kenya
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