[kictanet] Safaricom changes to home fibre ToS

[Sidney Ochieng]

Thanks Mwendwa for the resources. I'm going to push back on your point on
using market share to define whether or not competition exists in this
market obscures a lot. When it comes to fixed lines what matters is where
the cable terminates near enough to you connect to. There are entire
neighbourhoods that are only served by a single provider. So my question
still stands about what the CA is doing to ensure more competition.

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 at 21:47, Mwendwa Kivuva <Kivuva at transworldafrica.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Sidney for initiating this debate.
>
> On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 at 19:44, Sidney Ochieng via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Listers,
>> Not sure if you've seen the stir online of changes to the ToS with
>> Safaricom's home offering.
>> Safaricom is destroying Home Fibre with new ‘Fair Usage’ Limits:
>> https://tech-ish.com/2021/02/14/safaricom-is-destroying-home-fibre-with-new-fair-usage-limits/
>>
>> The response from the company has been disappointing in the extreme,
>> misleading with statistics and suggesting that it's best customers are
>> thieves <https://twitter.com/Safaricom_Care/status/1360876964651929600>,
>> never mind that working for home has lead to increased demand and use of
>> their services.
>>
>
> That tweet certainly does not call resellers thieves. It calls them
> resellers.
>
>
>>
>> All this is beside the point, at least for this forum, what I'm concerned
>> about this that if we didn't have an eagle-eyed blogger looking out for
>> this, it would have been completely missed until it was already in place.
>>
>> So I have a few of questions:
>>
>>    1. Does the CA have any policies around ToS changes around services
>>    under their purview and how they are communicated to users?
>>
>> CA has a consumer and public affairs department. Here is what they have
> to say about ToC ( CA/CPA/CEP/B/05/2014 )
> https://ca.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Consumer-Rights-and-Responsibilities.pdf
>
>
> Perhaps CA should update that information. It is 6 years old. But good
> information nevertheless.
>
>>
>>    1. Should companies that run what could be considered critical
>>    infrastructure be allowed to arbitrarily change their ToS to apply
>>    retroactively especially if it's to the detriment of their customers?
>>
>> I hope lawyers here can help us with this.
>
>>
>>    1.
>>    2. If customers choose not to accept a change in ToS what redress do
>>    they have given that perhaps the provider is the only one available in
>>    their area.
>>    3. Finally, given that we know this could all be avoided if there was
>>    more competition in the fibre market, what is the CA doing to make it so
>>    that we have more competition in that area? It's concerning that Safaricom
>>    seems to only option for home connections in several places
>>
>>  Determined by the market and economic forces. Just the other day,
> Safaricom was not in the home fibre market. What they have provided are
> more options for consumers. Numbers are stubborn facts. Fixed data
> subscription is as follows: Data source CA, July -September 2020 period,
> page 19
> https://ca.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sector-Statistics-Report-Q1-2020-2021.pdf
>  Safaricom PLC 229,406 subscribers, 35.6% market share
> Wananchi Group (Kenya) Ltd* 202,237 subscribers , 31.4 35.6% market share
>  Jamii Telecommunications Ltd 127,914  subscribers , 19.8 Poa  % market
> share
>  Internet Kenya Ltd 56,824  subscribers ,8.8% market share
>  Mawingu Networks Ltd 11,087 subscribers, 1.7 % market share
>  Internet Solutions Kenya Ltd 9,228  subscribers, 1.4 % market share
>
> Consumers are speaking with their wallets.
>
> As a policy discussion list, probably what we should be asking is what is
> the fair cost for certain broadband packages, and whether there is anything
> that can be really unlimited. Wearing my competent network engineer hat, I
> can tell you even at Safaricom, they don't have unlimited bandwidth.
> Bandwidth is a limited resource to the extent of the network devices,
> network media, and cost of acquiring and delivering that bandwidth to your
> edge device.
>
> Best Regards
> ______________________
> Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwendwa-kivuva
>


-- 
Regards,
Sidney

*Twitter:* @princelySid <https://twitter.com/princelySid> | *Web: *
sidneyochieng.co.ke
*Skype: *sidney.ochieng | *Github:* princelySid
<https://github.com/princelySid>
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