The 'abuse' complaint was silly, I think: Zain's network was congested from day one of their tariff launch. I'm sure, very very sure, that telecoms professionals at both Zain and Bharti are, well, professional enough to anticipate the need to increase network capacity if they launch such an aggressive tariff. <br>
<br>You've seen the fun little leaked exchange between Rene Meza and Michael Joseph - Zain approached Safaricom in the evening asking for capacity on the Safaricom-owned link, and Joseph promised to look into this in the morning. The interconnection agreement between both companies states that this protocol can take up to seven days, as far as I understand. <br>
<br><a href="http://www.ratio-magazine.com/201008203586/Kenya/News-Analysis-Telecoms-Price-Wars-Gone-Dirty.html" target="_blank">http://www.ratio-magazine.com/201008203586/Kenya/News-Analysis-Telecoms-Price-Wars-Gone-Dirty.html</a><br>
<br>Either they could have just increased capacity before the launch, or, if they were worried about alerting Safaricom to this, then just suck up and tell customers that the network will be congested for another seven days. <br>
<br>So for Zain to come out the next morning and shout about abuse is
dishonest and a cheap marketing ploy that I think they really don't
need. <br><br>
I'm a happy capitalist. Competition is a good thing, in Kenya as elsewhere. So I'd like them to compete on the strength of their services and concepts, not by overnight accusations of 'abuse'. <br><br>Mind you, if Zain kill of Orange and Essar, we'll have a bit less competition in terms of numbers, but hey ... :) <br>
<br>Happy phone calls, <br>Andrea <br><br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 24 August 2010 14:34, Emmanuel Khisa <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:oloo.khisa@googlemail.com" target="_blank">oloo.khisa@googlemail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi Andreas,<br><br>You have spoken for me on this one...I have also wondered since zain/bharti lodged their complaint with CCK over clogged network, were they just playing spoilt kid or do they have a valid claim? My opinion is that since they have experienced an unanticipated rise in subscribers they didnt have the network infrastructure to support these calls and so quickly blame the rival and make them look bad. But then again maybe they have a valid case against the boys in green.<br>
Nonetheless the winner here is the consumer. Shall we safely say that we have entered the third mobile revolution.<br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div></div><div>On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 1:56 PM, Andrea Bohnstedt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:andrea.bohnstedt@ratio-magazine.com" target="_blank">andrea.bohnstedt@ratio-magazine.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div></div><div>I'm wondering: <br><br>Will CCK strictly enforce the cut-off deadline for unregistered SIM cards at the end of August? Are Zain making sure that everyone picking up a new line also register them immediately? <br>
<br>If price war is Zain's strategy, will they have enough money left to invest in infrastructure and customer service once their subscriber numbers go up significantly? Will they be able to scale up both systems quickly enough? <br>
<br>Telkom Orange are cited in the media as complaining that the interconnect rate also applies to their fixed line service and that this is not even covering their costs (<a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Telkom%20unhappy%20with%20interlink%20fee/-/1006/995372/-/o9pm5az/-/" target="_blank">http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Telkom%20unhappy%20with%20interlink%20fee/-/1006/995372/-/o9pm5az/-/</a>). I wonder if the two big ones having it out won't kill the two small ones first? <br>
<br>Bharti/Zain have also launched free sms alongside lower on and off-net calling rates and free minutes in Nigeria: <a href="http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/?sid=1652_Bharti+subsidiary+Zain+introduces+free+SMS+in+Nigeria" target="_blank">http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/?sid=1652_Bharti+subsidiary+Zain+introduces+free+SMS+in+Nigeria</a><br>
<br>Happy afternoon, <br><font color="#888888">Andrea <br>
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