[kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame?

Thu Sep 23 15:36:30 EAT 2010

Nice ideas - by the way - dont shout too  much, I know a couple of chaps who are doing this "under the hood" ;-)

And so maybe the question would be to what extent has the Regulatory environment failed to address this segment of business that perhaprs can have a +ve impact on the Internet retail prices? 

I know they unbundled the last-mile during the fixed-telcom days, probably it is about time they also unbundled the "last-mile" for the mobile operators? that would be quite an interesting proposition - but it can get most of your ideas running over rather than under the hood.. 

walu.

--- On Thu, 9/23/10, Edwin Onchari <eonchari at lynxbits.com> wrote:

From: Edwin Onchari <eonchari at lynxbits.com>
Subject: RE: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame?
To: "'Walubengo J'" <jwalu at yahoo.com>
Cc: "'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010, 4:08 PM

With the ISPs supply chain (support, reselling, etc)  “outsourced”
to independent providers, prices will come down and yes, content will come.
Picture this: 

·        
Their overheads in getting connectivity to homes (some quite “remote”)
will be diminished as entrepreneurs such as myself will be willing to offer
last mile services by offering connections to the flats/apts where I stay and
buy bandwidth from the cheapest provider and resell – competition then
sets in. I have to be the most affordable in my estate/village 

·        
I could offer virtual apartment searches at a minimal cost (this
is an underground industry by itself as we speak-apartment viewing costs 1K a
day) 

·        
I could offer bespoke, hosted SaaS, etc,  at affordable
rates (people can now afford to be online all the time) 

·        
I could supplement my income teaching class 8’s, form 4’s,
college students in Math, Science, etc. Schools can enhance their distance
learning offerings 

·        
TV stations can have their shows online ( I hate commercials and
programs that least interest me), with millions ready to watch these at
affordable rates…enormous advertising revenue for them. 

·        
I can make extra income by becoming a customer service agent of
company X that can ill afford to hire me full time. Giving the company’s
customers 24/7 support, cheaply. 

·        
Order a consignment of bananas from Kisii, or Tilapia from
Migingo (the seller there is able to access a digital village and market
his/her produce, cyber rates will be less than 25 cents per minute of high
speed access) 

·        
I can access government services at anytime of the day 

·        
The list is endless 

In a nutshell, innovation will kick in, content will be
available and users will be in abundance. 

Edwin 

Sales without Customer Service........is
like stuffing money into a pocket full of holes.

DAVID TOOMA 

From: Walubengo J
[mailto:jwalu at yahoo.com] 

Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 2:39 PM

To: Edwin Onchari

Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'

Subject: RE: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame? 

  @ Edwin,

  By saying ISPs/Telcos to "Open Up their Supply Chain" do you mean
  "Force down the Retail Cost in order to stimulate demand?" - Hoping
  to recoup cost through larger volume sales?

  Again, the ASSUMPTION here is that lower costs will automatically stimulate
  demand. Perhaps there's no demand because there's no local internet content
  and as such dropping cost may not really increas demand. 

  Put differently, 90% of the Kenyans who are currently NOT using the internet,
  dont, simply because there's NOTHING in it for them (why would my Dad get
  online? or that farmer in Kirinyaga? to do facebook, yahoo, youtube?(.. the
  current hot content "locally" here)). 

  In other words even giving them FREE internet will not get them online...but
  it might get the Operators broke, forcing some of them to close shop and
  eventually deny the few 10% of the current Kenyan Internet Users access to
  the 'Net...far fetched but possible.

  walu.

  --- On Thu, 9/23/10, Edwin Onchari <eonchari at lynxbits.com>
  wrote: 

  From: Edwin Onchari <eonchari at lynxbits.com>

  Subject: RE: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame?

  To: "'Walubengo J'" <jwalu at yahoo.com>

  Cc: "'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>

  Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010, 2:16 PM 

  Walu, 

  The ISPs/Telcos are to blame for the
  sheer lack of innovation on their part. The one asset that they have not
  leveraged on is the abundant; under-utilized IT human resource and
  entrepreneurial base inKenya. Open up their supply chain to include this
  group(s) will see the last mile issue sorted = more users= shared costs on
  the bandwidth procured by ISPs=lowered retail prices 

  My take, 

  Edwin 

  From:
  kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke
  [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
  Behalf Of Walubengo J

  Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 1:04 PM

  To: Edwin

  Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions

  Subject: Re: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame? 

    Yawe,

    I think everyone (including ISPs) ASSUMED that the marine cable will
    automatically crash the RETAIL internet prices.  But ofcourse that
    turned out to be false.

    At the same time, it DOES NOT mean the marine cable was a wasted
    effort.  It simply means the marine cable is NECESSARY but NOT
    SUFFICIENT to bring down retail internet prices.

    I am not sure at this moment in time whom to blame for this. But I know its
    not Dr. Ndemo nor the ISPs/Telcos. I am investigating this phenomena, and
    perhaps, sometime future I could share the results...

    walu.

    @ Nnenna, your quotes from Senegal, Ivory Coast are juicy - but dig deeper
    - since at face value, the mobile internet prices in .Ke look cheap, but in
    long term reality(usage) they ARE NOT!

    --- On Thu, 9/23/10, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>
    wrote: 

    From: robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>

    Subject: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo

    To: jwalu at yahoo.com

    Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions"
    <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>

    Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010, 11:38 AM 

    Hi, 

    The ISPs have now teamed up and agreed that
    the cost of "International" Internet access will not be coming
    down soon because we have less than 2.6% penetration. 

    Dr. Ndemo, this is a slap on you, wield your
    big stick, or sorry not possible you recently handed it over to Orange. 

    There is only one solution to this issue
    lets concentrate in developing local content thereby reducing the
    dependence on the over hyped marine cable.  But based on the
    discussions on the commodity exchange system this will be an up hill task
    as we question the credibility of everyone he tries to setup a local online
    application or service. 

    I read an article on how Hon. Kilonzo is
    planning to setup green houses in all the schools in his constituency while
    the others are trying to provide computers to children who are not able to
    get a balanced diet.   

    Again I repeat "I am ashamed to be a
    member of the ICT fraternity" but like was once said by
    a disgruntled KANU memebrr "I shall remain the opposition
    within" 

    Regards

    Robert Yawe

    KAY System Technologies Ltd

    Phoenix House, 6th Floor

    P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200

    Kenya 

    Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 

    -----Inline Attachment Follows----- 

    _______________________________________________

    kictanet mailing list

    kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke

    http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

    This message was sent to: jwalu at yahoo.com

    Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com 

  No virus
  found in this incoming message.

  Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

  Version: 8.5.445 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3152 - Release Date: 09/22/10
  18:40:00 

No virus
found in this incoming message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

Version: 8.5.445 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3153 - Release Date: 09/22/10
18:40:00 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20100923/f07b419e/attachment.htm>