[kictanet] Matiang’i rules out Safaricom reprieve from licence terms

[Adam Nelson]

I guess the US regulators would step in about voice quality if it was bad
in certain areas that the market wouldn't want to serve.  The theory would
be that the spectrum is a public asset licensed to the vendor in order to
further the public good - and that part of the license terms are to satisfy
the public good.

This is why the US landline regulators force telephone companies to service
very rural areas at the same price as more economically efficient urban
areas.

If CCK was saying that all of the operators needed to put masts in Turkana
as part of a public good, that would be one thing.  But just saying that
voice quality is low in general and not backing it up with how that
compares to international standards (they surely exist and the article
discusses that Safaricom passed such international tests) seems like a
pretty weak argument to me.

Of course, the writing in the Business Daily article is so muddled that
it's hard to tell what's actually going on.

--
Kili.io - OpenStack for Africa: kili.io
Musings: twitter.com/varud <https://twitter.com/varud>
About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson


On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 11:14 AM, James Mbugua <jgmbugua at gmail.com> wrote:

> Adam,
>
> Is it standard in other countries or is the QoS a Kenyan/CCK feature? Then
> it might be a shakedown.
>
> James
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 11:11 AM, Adam Nelson <adam at varud.com> wrote:
>
>> This seems like a shakedown to me.
>>
>> Everybody I know gets Safaricom if they can afford it (otherwise Airtel).
>>  The market can handle quality problems and the CCK can help by educating
>> the local markets (i.e. local radio spots discussing carrier quality in
>> each market).
>>
>> --
>> Kili.io - OpenStack for Africa: kili.io
>> Musings: twitter.com/varud <https://twitter.com/varud>
>> About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 11:07 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  ICT secretary Fred Matiang’i has vowed to tie the renewal of
>>> Safaricom’s licence to the voice quality checks that show the mobile phone
>>> operator is non-compliant.
>>> Dr Matiang’i said the government and the Communications Commission of
>>> Kenya (CCK) will not negotiate on the voice quality standards.
>>> ....
>>> “I don’t understand why an operator would like to negotiate a licence
>>> condition. There are only two options here, either comply or step out of
>>> the business,” Dr Matiang’i told the Business Daily on the sidelines of the
>>> launch of the electronic filling of returns by insurers to the Insurance
>>> Regulatory Authority.
>>>
>>> Check more @
>>> http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Safaricom-licence-terms/-/539550/2139198/-/uvyr23/-/index.html
>>>
>>> ---
>>> my comment? - Safaricom "ina weneyewe"  translation for the
>>> international viewers "Safaricom has its owners" :-)
>>>
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>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>
>
>
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