[kictanet] Airtel Plans Africa Exit

Mon Jan 30 10:38:51 EAT 2017

.....and the way CA (formerly CCK) were hammered when they tried to do a
market intervention on the basis of Safaricom dominance....SMH....

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 9:20 AM, Ngigi Waithaka via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Ali,
>
> Analyzing why Safaricom has dominated this market in such Key areas as
> Mobile Telephony, Payment Services etc is probably something that would
> qualify for a PHD thesis.
>
> Here's what I know though:
> 1. Are Safaricom's Customers happy? Answer is, do they have a choice? Go
> back to Microsoft's heyday, were you actually really happy with Windows
> '98? Did you have a *choice*?
>
> 2. Yes, Safaricom could have better services than Airtel & Telkom,
> although I doubt, having been a user of both Safaricom & Airtel over 15yrs.
> Even if they were better, how do you reconcile that they are maybe 4 times
> the size of the rest of the competition? Are they 4x better than say
> Airtel? I doubt.
>
> Now, onto things MPesa, I think Safaricom does MPesa a great injustice of
> not spinning it off. I want MPesa (with all its associated services) on my
> Airtel line.
>
> MPesa needs to be listed on NASDAQ! MPesa needs to be the third choice
> globally after VISA & Mastercard!
>
> But there's the not so small matter of who actually owns MPesa!
>
> Onto matters regulation, if I was CBK, I would be very concerned if one
> such firm had that much 'power' over the money transfer market.
>
> Rgds
>
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 9:10 AM, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke> wrote:
>
>> Ngigi
>>
>> :-)
>>
>> The issue of Mobitelea aside (because we will really never know how that
>> went down) Safaricom is simply better at everything:-
>>
>> 1. Their lobbying is simply superior and a thing of beauty to watch.
>> Lobbying is an acceptable practice the world over. Please don't complain
>> when your competitor is doing a better job at it than you..
>>
>> 2. Which industry is Safaricom in? Energy? (Mkopa Solar with 500k
>> subscribers simply won't have existed without the symbiotic relationship
>> they have with Mpesa. And Safaricom skims off the top as per agreement);
>> Banking? CBA without Mshwari is a shell; Payments?  Lipa na Mpesa is giving
>> Visa and Mastercard a run for their money; TV? Zuku is about to feel real
>> competition. And the list goes on.
>>
>> 3. I'm keen to see the Dominance Report because I think we need to expand
>> our thinking. I don't believe there is anyone today who has Dominance in
>> any particular area at least not in the traditional way we have defined
>> Dominance.
>>
>> 4. The thing of course to watch is abuse of Market Dominance.  And this
>> in itself a slippery slop. Once The US Government tried to break up
>> Microsoft. What the Government couldn't do the Market did. Free Markets are
>> the greatest equalizer.
>>
>> Let us be careful what we wish for. In as long as the customer is
>> generally happy we have nothing to fear.
>>
>> *Ali Hussein*
>> *Principal*
>> *Hussein & Associates*
>> +254 0713 601113 <+254%20713%20601113>
>>
>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>
>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>
>> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>
>> "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a
>> habit."  ~ Aristotle
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On 30 Jan 2017, at 8:29 AM, Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi at at.co.ke> wrote:
>>
>> Ali,
>>
>> The only palatable End Game; Equitel buys off Airtel Kenya, combines it
>> with Helios stake @Telkom
>>
>> Massive innovation thereafter would get back some respectable market
>> share.
>>
>> Truth be told, Safaricom's cozzyiness with GoK has helped it along big
>> time. I dare say if Kencell has ceded 10% to Mobitelea, as Safaricom was
>> more than glad to do, we'd probably be speaking a different story right now!
>>
>> What these foreign firms investing in Africa need to remember is.......
>>
>> THIS IS AFRICA!
>> On 28 Jan 2017 8:40 a.m., "Ali Hussein via kictanet" <
>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>
>>> Listers
>>>
>>> Another one bites the dust?
>>>
>>> I'm really curious as to whats going on in the Telco sector.
>>>
>>> Bharti Airtel has announced that it will be exiting 14 African countries
>>> within a year. The affected countries include: Chad, Congo, Gabon, Ghana,
>>> Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania,
>>> Uganda and Zambia.
>>>
>>> The telecom operator is faced with poor performance across those
>>> markets. Two years ago, when Airtel began talks to sell off its
>>> operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone to
>>> Orange
>>> <http://mobilityarena.com/airtel-not-exiting-africa-despite-talks-to-sell-4-networks-to-orange/>,
>>> the company had stated that it wouldn’t be exiting Africa.
>>> Airtel plans Africa exit
>>> <http://mobilityarena.com/airtel-exit-nigeria-13-african-countries/>
>>>
>>> Is the African market too competitive or is the regulatory environment
>>> skewed towards a few players?
>>>
>>> *Ali Hussein*
>>>
>>> *Principal*
>>>
>>> *Hussein & Associates*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Tel: +254 713 601113
>>>
>>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>>
>>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>>
>>> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>>>
>>>
>>> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,
>>>
>>> Chiromo Road, Westlands,
>>>
>>> Nairobi, Kenya.
>>>
>>> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
>>> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
>>> organizations that I work with.
>>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> *Regards,*
>
> *Wait**haka Ngigi*
> Chief Executive Officer | Alliance Technologies | MCK Nairobi Synod
> Building
> T +254 20 525 0750 |Office Mobile: +254 716 201061 <+254%20716%20201061>
> | M +254 737 811 000
> www.at.co.ke
>
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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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