[kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling

Mon Dec 30 10:35:40 EAT 2013

@Ngigi, @Ndemo,

this is the hard-talk that keeps me coming back to KICTAnet :-)

my 2pence is that this war is NOT about digital migration - given that both Government and Media houses agree on that.  This was is about who controls the digital signal distribution (licence).  Its sort of a chicken and egg problem in that the current digital signal distributors (Signet/PANG) dont have "local" content but have the license to distribute.  While the current local content guys (media houses) have the content but lack the digital license to distribute.

A license without content is like a gun without a bullet.  A bullet without a gun is of no use either.  Who will blink first?

Afrosinema continues :-)

walu.

--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 12/30/13, Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi at at.co.ke> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling
 To: jwalu at yahoo.com
 Cc: "Consumer and Public Affairs" <cpa at cck.go.ke>, "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
 Date: Monday, December 30, 2013, 9:32 AM

 Daktari,
 Having looked at your comments,  I would want
 to think the comparisons you have picked do not quite cut
 it.
 Fact, we currently have firms in Kenya apart
 from KBC who have a reliable analogue transmission network
 across the entire country and so far they have delivered on
 this.
 To upgrade this transmission network to pump
 out Digital Signals, instead of the Analogue is not rocket
 science. It can be done easily and would reuse such existing
 infrastrucure such as sites, masts, backup generators,
 logistics & security etc

 To say or assume that these firms could *not*
 provide a Digital Solution if asked to,  simply does not
 add up. Not when they have 60% of what you need and the
 remaining parts e.g multiplexers, antennas are off-the-shelf
 parts.

 Second, to compare these firms to Mobitelea is
 really pushing it. Here you are talking of firms that have
 demostrated capacity in building & maintaining their own
 infrastructure and that are employing Kenyans to maintain
 and operate them.

 These are not politically connected individuals
 who have nothing else to offer apart from access to high
 places.
 These are solid Kenyan companies.
 Thirdly, this case cannot even be remotely
 compared to KPTC where competition had to be introduced to
 kickstart our Telco Sector. In this case you are actually
 consolidating the *infrastructure* industry to a single
 vendor not liberating it. 

 You are going from more than 10 firms each with
 own transmission infrastrucure to two firms, one of which
 (KBC) as you have correctly indicated doesn't cut it.

 So infact you have consolidated our entire
 transmission industry into a single company, and then given
 that to the Chinese!
 If there is something that smells Mobitelea.
 That is it!
 Fourth you mention the China Telcom partnering
 up with Apple iPhone as an example of how countries
 sometimes partner with firms outside their own. But you fail
 to mention they never went to Apple as their first point of
 call. They first partnered up with Lenovo, HTC, Huawei
 (solid Chines firms) before the call to Cupertino was
 made.

 You take care of your own first before you go
 taking care of others. That's what smart countries &
 leadership does.
 Lastly,  please let us differentiate btn the
 Infrastructure issues and Digital Migration issues. 
 On Digital migration,  we are headed there and
 there is not much support for Media firms on this. Wapende
 wasipende!
 However,  on denying them the deal to build
 the Digital Infrastructure is very questionable and on the
 very least points to a certain 'Mobitelea' type
 deal, exactly what you say we ought to have avoided.

 But then again, This is Kenya. Where the
 impossible happens.
 Waithaka Ngigi
 Alliance Technologies

 Nairobi, Kenya
 www.A1.io
 On 29 Dec 2013 21:36,
 "Bitange Ndemo" <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
 wrote:

 Kivuva,

 Iam a supporter of building local capacities but whichever
 way CCK would

 have given out the license, there was going to be criticism.
  CCK wanted

 someone capable of putting up infrastructure after we
 discovered Signet

 was taking too long and Government did not have money.  The
 financial bid

 for all the local firms did not measure up to what CCK had
 requested.

 You realize CCK has gone through this journey before and
 were hit hard

 when policy requirement needed 70 percent local
 participation, we got

 Mobitelea.  Every policy pronouncement has some wheeler
 dealers behind

 singing patriotism.  World over what is needed is the
 ability to provide

 the solution.  You read the other day that China Telcom was
 partnering

 with I-Phone yet China is the greatest producer of mobile
 handsets.  There

 comes a time when we must accept partnerships that will help
 us build

 capacity.  We provided that opportunity in Signet but it
 was declined.

 When you focus on coverage to offer essential service, you
 look at

 capability as demonstrated in the financials.

 For many years we protected KPTC as a critical
 infrastructure but what we

 ended up with was poverty en masse.  Our people would not
 afford

 telephony.  Ever since we liberalized the communications
 sector, it is now

 contributing more than 5 percent to the economy up from zero
 percent.  It

 is dangerous to focus on one aspect of migration
 infrastructure.  If each

 of the broadcaster is given multiplexing ability, they will
 hoard the

 spectrum and shut out new entrants just when the creative
 economy is

 trying to pick up.  The current Media is simply trying to
 protect its own

 interests considering the fact that we have new hard working
 Kenyans

 entering the broadcast arena. Why would we be supportive of
 oligopolistic

 practices when the industry is opening up to more players?

 Court or no court Migration will take place and new business
 models will

 emerge.  This is where we need to focus our attention.
  The delaying

 tactics you are seeing is to disenfranchise more than 100
 new broadcasters

 that are born and bred in this country.  I said before and
 would state

 here that not even Signet or PANG would build a sustainable
 business model

 without serious content aggregation strategy considering the
 fact that

 technology changes every 3 years.

 Ndemo.

 > Ali, I'm afraid many listers are not getting your
 argument, that of

 > auctioning our critical resources to foreigners.

 >

 > Many of us have been dragged into taking sides either
 for the

 > government (CCK), or the local media houses. If we
 divorce them from

 > this debate, maybe we will be more objective.

 >

 > Let me digress, we have enough coal in Kitui to setup a
 powerplant

 > that can propell Kenya to vision 2030 and stop relying
 on poor

 > rainfall and other unreliable renewable energy like
 geothermal. But

 > what did we do with the coal? We auctioned it to the
 Chinese "who need

 > the power more than us." That is the same thing
 happening to our

 > spectrum resources.

 >

 > Forget about procurement laws and let's think about
 economics that

 > will build the country without taking sides. Is it
 better to give the

 > frequency distribution to a local firm, and keep local
 dollars local,

 > or is it better to have that capital flight to China?
 We should even

 > give the third licence FREE to a consortium of local
 firms than

 > auction it for a Billion dollars to a foreigner.

 >

 > Are we a nation that has lost national pride?

 >

 > Remember CCK cannot have an objective stand on this
 since Wambua has

 > to respond with the official government position, and I
 cannot fault

 > him for that. Only civil society can take the high
 moral ground and do

 > what is good for Kenya. Advocate for our critical
 resources, airwaves,

 > minerals, tourism, ... to be controlled by locals.

 >

 > Dr. Ndemo is the economist on the list. Can he teach us
 why developed

 > economies work so hard to support their industries,
 while Kenya works

 > extra hard to support foreign economies? What are the
 repercussions on

 > future generations?

 >

 > Anybody who cannot get this argument is beyond
 uncolonization.

 >

 > --

 > ______________________

 > Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya

 > twitter.com/lordmwesh

 > kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we
 know

 >

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 network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
 sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth
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 KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable
 behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect
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 or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do
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