[kictanet] Safaricom – A Modest Proposal (Was Re: Price Control in the Telecom Market in Kenya?)

[Andrea Bohnstedt]

That's really what struck me most regarding this issue: it's a market, so if
there is an opportunity, someone will use it. Like Equity did (although
technology also had a huge role to play in halting the contraction in retail
banking, I think - and probably economic growth, too).

I left this comment under Steve Song's article:

I think it depends what Collymore means by ‘neglect’ – if it simply means
not expanding their network infrastructure, then rural areas still have the
existing Safaricom infrastructure at their disposal. I don’t think that
Safaricom would deliberately take down any infrastructure.

I seem to remember that Celtel – at least in Uganda, possibly also here –
started out by deliberately focusing on people with higher incomes. There
was no big brouhaha at the time, and Safaricom then took the opportunity to
invest in the low-end market.

I don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with that, and accordingly, I don’t
quite see why we need a ‘modest proposal’ of ‘let someone else do it’: Of
course anyone else can do it. In fact, I suspect that Airtel will have to
tackle those markets because unless they acquire large numbers of those
low-spending customers, they won’t make money.
It's also a trend that we are already seeing: voice isn't where the money
will be made anymore, and Safaricom have invested quite heavily in data
services and generally services targeted at the corporate sector - no poor
rural cousins here.



On 23 February 2011 23:23, Francis Hook <francis.hook at gmail.com> wrote:

> Reminds me of the move by certain banks in the late 90s - to focus on
> HNW customers , raise minimun deposits to shed off low income
> earners....the Equity happened and suddendly the banks see the long
> tail end adds up to much afterall and sooon they are opening branches
> at every other bus stop...
>
> Good perspective.  To a certain extent this merits a review of the USF
> and its use.
>
> Thanks for sharing the link.
>
>
> On 23/02/2011, McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:
> > All,
> >
> > Steve Song is, as usual, on point in this article:
> >
> > http://manypossibilities.net/2011/02/safaricom-a-modest-proposal/
> >
> > Whiteafrican has just blogged about it as well.
> >
> >
> http://whiteafrican.com/2011/02/21/phone-and-internet-mesh-for-african-villages/
> >
> > I have been on the Village Telco dev list for a while, if anyone is
> > interested, ping me offlist.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Cheers,
> >
> > McTim
> > "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
> > route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel
> >
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>
>
> --
> Francis Hook
> +254 733 504561
>
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Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
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