[kictanet] Is Safaricom really dominant?

Sat Aug 1 22:08:33 EAT 2015

Walu, 
Just a brief comment. Under telecoms law, "potential abuse" is the concept used and applied "ex-ante" unlike competition law where "abuse" sanctions are applied ex-post and for reasons which are well known, this would be too late in telecoms sector. As an exception to the general  application of competition law, mere dominance under telecommunications law triggers additional regulatory sanctions while applying competition law principles. Remember that CAK is also a competition regulator for telecoms sector but mainly uses "ex-ante" approach.

John Kariuki
N

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-------- Original message --------
From: Walubengo J via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
Date:  
To: ngethe.kariuki2007 at yahoo.co.uk 
Cc: Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com> 
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Is Safaricom really dominant? 

@Ali,

Safaricom IS dominant. Even they don't dispute it :-)

Their (debatable) defence has always been that they are NOT abusing the dominance. My take has always been that there is need for regulatory intervention.  What I am not quite sure about is if the current approach will give us the desired outcomes. 

Have a read @
The CA's new regulations have Safaricom in their sights

The CA's new regulations have Safaricom in their sights
Once an operator is declared dominant, then the Tariff Regulations , which say in short that the dominant operator cannot dictate the price of its own services, kic...
View on www.nation.co.ke
Preview by Yahoo

Meanwhile, the other points are all major and deserve have their own separate thread :-)

walu.

From: Ali Hussein via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
To: jwalu at yahoo.com 
Cc: Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke> 
Sent: Saturday, August 1, 2015 4:38 AM
Subject: [kictanet] Is Safaricom really dominant?

Listers

Apologies for cross posting.

Safaricom was again on the dock two days ago at the Senate that was sitting to discuss this issue. I don't have the full details of what transpired but I do know one thing (or two):-

We are wasting too much time discussing an issue which the market will address - sooner rather than later. Instead of Regulators and policy makers spending too much time debating on whether Safaricom is dominant or not I challenge them to create an environment that will ensure that such discussions are pointed in the right direction. For example:-

1. Do we have ubiquitous broadband in the country? When we talk about high speed internet do we mean Nairobi or Kenya? 

2. What is the Universal Access Fund doing? Where are the reports for us to interrogate? 

3. What is our definition of Net Neutrality and how will this affect the growth of critical infrastructure going forward? 

4. Are the Telcos collectively behaving badly? And what can be done to address this issue? I mean stuff like 'expired' bundles, Fair use Policy (whatever that means!), basic customer service etc.

5. What is our position on Privacy and Cyber Crime? 

6. Does the average Kenyan understand the pitfalls of freely sharing information online? And how can we protect them without curtailing their freedoms? 

7. In the wake of the GES Conference what next? 

My humble opinion is that this continuous talk of Safaricom being dominant is akin to Wagging the Dog.  

Ali Hussein
Hussein & Associates
+254 770 906375 / 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

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