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What the heck, CA?
by Nanjira Sambuli 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Government-likely-to-start-phone-tapping/1056-… Regards, Nanjira. Sent on the move.

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“Talk to Safaricom” Responses to Day 1 Questions - Request to USF/CA and Telcos
by Ali Hussein 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Dear Rachel Further to Steve's response on the issue of USF utilization and collaboration with Telcos I have some queries:- According to Steve, and I quote:- *1. * *As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge.* *In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation.* *End quote.* It would be great for us to understand the rationale against providing the Telcos representation on the USAC. I would also like to request the community to be made to understand why the fund is still under-utilised. As per your last responses on the list you mentioned that out of 4.8b the fund had only utilised 1.5b? yet large swathes of counties are still going without 3G connectivity or in some cases no connectivity at all. 2. With the support of the Telcos could we map out using InfoGraphics the areas that need most attention in the country? *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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Ensure that Kenya, is getting a fair deal
by S.M. Muraya 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Bureaucrats favor big/fat contracts & "establishments" ... innovators favor creativity. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/kenyas-Sh43-billion-US-arms-deal-at-risk/1056-… IOMAX, a company based in the congressman's own district, can deliver to Kenya a more appropriate and proven type of aircraft for $283 million less than L-3's price, Mr Budd said. “We need to ensure that Kenya, a long-time ally, is getting a fair deal, and that veteran-owned small businesses in our state aren’t getting shut out of competition because of government favouritism towards giant contractors,” the congressman declared.

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Safaricom complies with CAK order on M-Pesa fees disclosure
by Grace Githaiga 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Safaricom has started notifying M-Pesa users transaction costs charged for cash transfers and bill payments in compliance with a Competition Authority of Kenya directive. The company yesterday began disclosing M-Pesa fees after the completion of transactions. Customers who use M-Pesa to pay a bill or transfer cash are now informed of the fees associated with the transaction in an SMS. http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/539550-3813840-fmwl0t/ind… Best regards Githaiga, Grace Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga(a)hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.

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AFNOG in Nairobi this May 2017
by Dorcas Muthoni 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Are familiar with www.afnog.org? This is a forum to get really good technical skills in many areas. The workshops are coming to Nairobi in May. I have seen massive career growth for women who have gone through AfNOG. The AfNOG Workshop, deadline has passed. However we have special link as below which will expire in a few days. Great if you can submit by tomorrow as evaluation is ongoing. https://afnog.org/applications/ext_online_application_en.php Kindly fill the form fully and submit. In the financial section please provide only the figure without the dollar sign $.

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Digital Security Training: Call for applications
by Liz Orembo 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Greetings listers, KICTANet in partnership with Global Partners Digital is pleased to announce an open call for participation in a one day digital security training scheduled for 3rd March 2017. We are particularly interested in participation from the civil society, bloggers and journalists. *About the training* This training is informed by incidents of online harassment of activists, journalists and bloggers, and coming at a time when the Kenyan social media environment is polarized largely due to the upcoming general elections. This training will increase participants’ knowledge in such areas as: · Identification and evaluation of online risks, · Response to digital security incidents, · Legal and ethical environments along online expression. To apply, please *SEND YOUR EMAIL TO info(a)kictanet.or.ke <info(a)kictanet.or.ke>; *with details of your name, work and expressing why you would like to participate in this training. The *deadline to submit expressions of interest is 24th Feb 2017.* If you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch with Liz Orembo (lizorembo(a)kictanet.or.ke <lizorembo(a)gmail.com>) -- Best regards. Liz. PGP ID: 0x1F3488BF

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Africa - delegated!
by Mark Elkins 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

FYI - africa - safe and secure (validating from the root and DNSSEC Signed). # dig @::1 +dnssec +multiline africa soa ; <<>> DiG 9.11.0-P2 <<>> @::1 +dnssec +multiline africa soa ; (1 server found) ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52213 ;; flags: qr rd ra ad; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags: do; udp: 4096 ; COOKIE: 6dcba3ed600a97bd6f7a1e7858a475f8bd4dc44a8b6fb28e (good) ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;africa. IN SOA ;; ANSWER SECTION: africa. 3555 IN SOA zone-ds.registry.net.za. support.registry.net.za. ( 2017021505 ; serial 21600 ; refresh (6 hours) 7200 ; retry (2 hours) 1814400 ; expire (3 weeks) 3600 ; minimum (1 hour) ) africa. 3555 IN RRSIG SOA 8 1 3600 ( 20170301062014 20170214220103 21019 africa. RoQQCCDdh6QTEPkjHjfUZjRUlUgPiRdw0zjjteu/0Rgv 7PGHWfhM7CNLjtOHvtyLMdfS9NXyN6WJ1iqrXnC8A/rC sQeNbCnvK1EjjYwOZ+up4Erom7ChxioYP24zSXxpL1Tb jAyrX1ef7O9tX4VQlhJRmF//Z3iK43Oe7skAiUc= ) ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: africa. 86391 IN NS ns1.coza.net.za. africa. 86391 IN NS ns.coza.net.za. africa. 86391 IN NS coza1.dnsnode.net. africa. 86391 IN RRSIG NS 8 1 86400 ( 20170219184438 20170205084603 21019 africa. O+KYJxnFhZoa2iOmnK1BhpxTuse4GoJeKbV0tPbZ4jrA suzgzFqNTzyYxgTraZlXoyRDeUNATeQfsPiVP5A53lz7 JJxDxn5126EYDIrRM38OM6SZrf3ZKHawvDFjYKT2O5Ab sBEy00zp3dzQ7N5lq591ExrYvf9kwPMImHt1MnQ= ) ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: ns.coza.net.za. 172754 IN A 206.223.136.200 ns1.coza.net.za. 172754 IN A 66.135.62.20 coza1.dnsnode.net. 172754 IN A 194.146.106.74 -- Mark James ELKINS - Posix Systems - (South) Africa mje(a)posix.co.za Tel: +27.128070590 Cell: +27.826010496 For fast, reliable, low cost Internet in ZA: https://ftth.posix.co.za

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Re: [kictanet] "Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 2 Questions
by Timothy- Coach- Oriedo 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Thank you Steve for the Granular responses. Its enlightening and am learning new information including the safaricom.co.ke page being a freemium service. Which is an encouraging observation especially considering the issue of net neutrality and universal access of basic Internet services. Its indeed possible to provide free Internet services to segments of our communities for a valid cause. Good day. Timothy Oriedo about.me/Timoriedo On 15 Feb 2017 7:46 pm, "Walubengo J via kictanet" < kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: Thnx Steve, As comprehensive as usual. Listers, feel free to chambua/ask for further clarifications. walu. ------------------------------ *From:* Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> *To:* jwalu(a)yahoo.com *Cc:* Stephen Chege <SChege(a)Safaricom.co.ke> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 15, 2017 5:56 PM *Subject:* [kictanet] "Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 2 Questions Dear all Below are the responses to Day 2 Questions. We are picking up the supplementary questions and will respond to them. regards Steve *Talk-2-Safaricom, Day 2 (Tuesday 7th Feb)- Competition Issues* *Guideline*: Share your perspective as to whether or not Safaricom is dominant in the following sub-sectors and whether some intervention is required from the regulator. The current data from CA <http://www.ca.go.ke/images/downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Repor…> (Q1, 2016-17) could be a useful guideline for the dominance debate. It gives Safcom the following market share - a) Mobile Subscribers (69% of all subscribers, closest rival17.5%) ‘; b) Voice Traffic (76% of voice traffic, closest rival 13.8%) c) Data/Internet Subsector, (63.2% of mobile internet subscriptions, closest rival 21%) d) Mobile Money Transactions ( 81% of all mobile money transactions, closes rival 16%) I am sure we cannot ask or blame Safaricom for what it may consider a successful state of affairs :-) So please share your perspective as to whether or not Safaricom is dominant in the following sub-sectors and whether or not some intervention is required from the regulator in as far as making the market more competitive. Floor is open. *Questions+Comments from Discussions:* *Ali Hussein* *@Walu What strategic purpose would splitting Safaricom have on their business? I'm fundamentally opposed to government imposed splits. Let's look at one of the most famous splits:- Standard Oil in the US. It was split into 34 companies by the justice department. The most prominent of these were Exxon, Mobil and Chevron. Many years later through 'Mergers and Acquisitions' the original company is now more or less back as ExxonMobil, whose CEO has incidentally been appointed by The Donald to be Secretary of State. **https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil>** Having said that I think Mpesa remaining in Safaricom is stunting it's growth. But then that's their prerogative not anybody else's. I keep on saying that someone out there is quietly plotting to eat Safaricom's lunch. If they snooze.* Ali, Walu we cannot speculate as to what action will be proposed against Safaricom. However we take the very strong view that competition in our sector should not be viewed only from the perspective of the so called smaller players. Questions should be asked how the situation came to be given that two of the current players were licensed at practically the same time. Specifically, the issue of investment in infrastructure should be examined in detail. Regulatory intervention should not be used to reward failure to invest. Also Ali correctly states, we also have to keep investing and innovating or else we shall soon be someone’s lunch. Also, the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects Report <http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/842861463605615468/Global-Economic-Prospect…> (2016) notes, if Kenya’s economy wants to continue to grow at a ‘robust’ pace, empowering the mobile and technology sectors is critical as they provide the critical infrastructure needed for growth. *Barrack Otieno* *Many thanks for your email, i applaud Safaricom for its aggressive and smart approach that has made it a leader. My question will be focused on connecting the unconnected. * *Is there an effort to tailor make the customer service platform to include other local languages say, Luhya, Luo or Maa?, i think this will encourage more citizens who traditionally dont speak English and or Swahili to embrace telecommunications and or related services. * Good question Barrack, - we undertake a lot of investment in people and systems to ensure that all our customers are able to get service from our Call Centre in their preferred language. We have local dialect speakers in our Customer Centres and our Retail touch points who can serve all Kenyans in the event that they are not conversant with Kiswahili or English. So this is well covered. In fact our concern now is Chinese speakers! We have noted a significant number of calls from these customers. *2) What is Safaricoms experience with Mshwari - payments , defaults in light of the challenging economic times ?, i am sure this will be an indicator of the health of the economy. * M-Shwari is a CBA product that is delivered via the Safaricom platform. According to CBA, less than 2% of borrowers default on their repayments. M-Shwari leverages the ubiquity of mobile devices, Safaricom’s M-PESA and partnership with CBA to enable Kenyans operate and maintain a bank account through their mobile device. This service is quite successful, and in every single minute our two partners (CBA and KCB) process two loans every second on both their M-Shwari and KCB-M-PESA products. *Secondly i am curious to know the mechanism that is in place to refund people who might have money on Mpesa or Mshwari and pass on yet their relatives don't claim the money. * Our policy is that the M-PESA and M-Shwari balances are maintained in the individual’s accounts until they are claimed by their personal representatives or executors of their Will. To make a claim, such representatives or executors are required to present Letters of Administration or a Grant of Probate issued by a Court and complete the relevant claim forms available at any of our retail shops countrywide. The money is then paid to them. If this money is not claimed within two years, then the law requires us to remit the balances in those accounts to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority. *3) On the data front , can we have a status update of the Safaricom Fibre to the Home Project?, which areas have been covered?, which areas have not been covered, any challenges the company has faced from the citizens, county governments and regulators. Regards* We have just launched this project which complements our strategy to provide our customers end-to-end connectivity whether they are on-the-go or at home. So far we have fibre installed next to 20,000 homes to date meaning it will be easy to connect these residential areas to high speed fixed data. This is an ongoing effort which we see as our next strategic area for development. A lot of the concerns from citizens is the troublesome excavation works where the fibre is buried. We deal with these by ensuring our contractors restore the excavated areas back to the previous condition. With County Governments the concern is around Way Leaves. A number of us in this forum were involved in the drafting of the Critical Infrastructure Bill which, among other issues, sought to address the issues of delays in obtaining Way Leaves and in general ensuring that ICT infrastructure (including fibre optic cable) is deemed as utility and exempted from delays in approvals. I hope that Bill eventually passes into law. *Victor Kapiyo* *Safaricom has over the years benefited from its current position, raking in billions in profits for its shareholders. As a public listed company, what has the company done so far to confer some of these benefits to the public, whether as part of its CSR, investments or approaches in business operations etc.? Regards, * As a business, we have taken a conscious decision that our purpose is not solely to build value for our shareholders- which is an important part of what we do. We have at the centre of all the business we undertake a commitment to Transform Lives. We do this beyond the traditional realm of voice, data and mobile money services through partnerships in health, agriculture, the music and the arts space, backing and providing thought leadership for innovation, leading a corporate push to adopt the SDGs as well as projects such as the National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service to enhance security or the 23,000 primary schools which will benefit from free internet connectivity from Safaricom. Under our Corporate Responsibility program, we have helped over 1.2 million Kenyans receive health services, put 800,000 students in decent classrooms, and supported 1.25 million Kenyans through disaster response. We have provided over 300,000 people with access safe and clean water, and have economically empowered over 250,000 people. You may see more of our projects here: www.safaricom.co.ke/foundation and I invite any one of you to let us know if they are any areas that we should cover more. We truly believe in building our relevance beyond the bottom line to create a sustainable organisation that adds value for all Kenyans. *Grace Bomu* *I will ask a question on behalf of my teenager friend, "If Safcom makes so much profit, why can't it lower data costs?* Hi Grace, please see my earlier response to Sidney on this matter. *Odhiambo Washington* *On dominance on the above (except (c), I cannot blame Safaricom or even try to mention dominance. It's something they have worked for. However, they also need to use this gigantic position to ensure coverage everywhere while lowering tariffs on voice, data and mostly Money Transfer fees. Talking of coverage, I have severally tweeted Safaricom about the lack of network coverage along the road from Kapiti Area all the way to that turn-off to Nanyuki. I think the place is called Marwa. * *I am wondering whether they take the feedback seriously or it's just that they don't expect much revenue from travelers on that section of the journey to Nyeri/Nanyuki. And what about to Ole Polos (asking for Barrack!) ?? * Washington, we take all customer feedback seriously. It may take us some time to rectify some problems but we do act upon the complaints. As mentioned yesterday, our team is getting in touch with you to pinpoint these problem areas. A deep analysis will tell you that Safaricom charges for money transfer are very expensive. The trick is in the amounts you transfer - and they take advantage of the fact that most clients will want to do a transfer at once, instead of in bits, which I don't think is fair. The cost of sending 2,500 whether at once or in 1,000, 1000, 500 should be the same. Afterall it's all _digital_ money, not some individuals carrying the cash to destinations/final users :-) As mentioned before, we believe that our charges are competitive and reflect the convenience of transferring your money securely and efficiently. It is also important to note that there is a network cost element to each portion of your transaction, which is why the fees cannot be standardised in the manner you suggest. On money transfer and especially with regard to customer (or is it consumer?) protection, I still think Safaricom is capable of doing more with regard to those transactions where someone ends up sending to the wrong number. Much as they have introduced number lookups from the contacts stored on the SIM card, I believe number lookups from the contacts stored on the phone shouldn't be such an uphill task. Do they have plans for this? Our second generation M-PESA system has enabled the service known as Hakikisha, which allows you to confirm the recipient details prior to the transaction being completed, using the customer’s officially registered details. Furthermore, we have made it very simple to initiate a reversal in the event is erroneously sent to the wrong recipient. Nonetheless I can confirm that we are working on an M-PESA App which will, among other things, be able to seamlessly retrieve recipient details directly from the contacts in your phonebook further minimising chances of error. The App is currently being Piloted. *Being almost the world's pioneer of mobile money transfer, can they also pioneer a legal mechanism to deal with/mitigate cases where people have sent money to the wrong numbers by mistake? That is one area that remains wanting. * When a customer calls us and lets us know that the money was sent to the wrong number, we can usually reverse it if the money has not been withdrawn. However if the money has been withdrawn they are in essence raising a legal dispute. Our role as a telecoms provider is limited to service provision and therefore we are not empowered to take on the investigative elements of such a legal dispute. What we can do is to provide network tools that can assist with minimising the chance of error – which is why introduced services like Hakikisha and engage in continuous customer education around this issue. *At the moment, their 15sec option to mitigate that isn't quite intuitive. The "Cancel' option actually means 'go ahead and do the transfer', but most people have confused it with what "Cancel" in any other realm means. They should re-engineer the option to have the meaning/options expected by users..(Oh, was I supposed to give feedback or ask questions?) Besides, they should increase the time to 30secs, and also sponsor a media campaign to enlighten their clients. * Washington, this solution is flash-enabled, so whether the button says ‘Ignore’ while others say ‘Cancel’ depends purely on the type of handset the user owns. The simple rule of thumb is that any response is required in order to stop the transactions, not responding means the transactions will proceed. Currently the timeout period is 25 seconds, which some users say is too long! *Walu J* *I just have one question for Safcom with respect to Competition. Are they willing to: * *a) Be split into several independent units? As in make the Mobile money business (MPESA) a separate and autonomous unit from their Voice and Data side of business? * We believe that the decision to split or not to split should lie with the company. All I will say is that our current model has worked very well for us so far. *b) Open up MPESA service such that if I vuka(migrate) to competition e.g Airtel, I do not lose the MPESA facility? Obviously this would be an affront to their 'stronghold' but sometimes it may spice up the market a bit. This maybe necessary considering that their market share lead has not changed much over the last 10years. Which may point to a market failure or maybe they are just clever than everyone else :-). * That is a big ask Walu but again the decision to implement such an initiative should lie with us. Innovation is the fuel that powers success in business. If this is taken away and commoditised through Regulatory intervention this will send all the wrong signals. *Timothy Oriedo* *My question on today's topic. Are Frenemy and Coopetion terms alien to Safaricom's strategy? * *I observe aggressive canibalization forward, backward, laterally and upwards. With previous moves of backward integration to own infrastructure distribution - laying out of own fibre capacity reducing lease to capacity and forward integration of remodelling the airtime / scratchcards product distribution structure of their dealerships making it less lucrative for them to operate. Laterally through launch of peripheral services that would rather belong to their business partners email.e.g mobile money-banking, the big box-media etc. * *Isn't it unfair to compete with your suppliers and clients in the name of value chain innovation ? * Wow! There are many loaded statements here, most of which are not entirely factual. Be that as it may, we compete fairly and we are interested in operating in an environment where other operators thrive because we believe there is significant opportunity for us all. Timothy trust me when I say we want to Transform Lives. It is at the centre of all we do – I have personally seen business plans set aside because they were not transformative for our customer. Even as we invest in our own fibre network, we are working with a number of local companies to implement the service – the same goes for any other element of our business including airtime distribution, which is done primarily through over 250,000 dealers country-wide. At a broader level, our cross-industry partnerships such as those we have with M-KOPA, KARA <http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2017/02/safaricom-partners-kara-boost-n…> or Mulley’s Supermarket <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YlczoCpvYI> – allow us to merge our collective strengths to provide unique products for the market. Lastly apart from mpesa transaction of less than 100 Bob, Please Call Me and checking for airtime balance which is the other Freemium service that safaricom is know for? The way to look at these so called ‘Freemium’ services is their reach and value to the person using them. To a college student who wants to communicate but doesn’t have any airtime a ‘Please Call Me Text” is not a small thing. You can imagine this for M-PESA customer who needs to send Kshs. 100. I can confirm that transaction numbers in this category have grown by more than 130% since we waived the charges. These may appear to be just two services but their reach is enormous given the number of customers who use them. Other ‘Freemiums’ include access to our website – any time you land on the site there is no charge and of course our Customer Care. *Sydney Ochieng* *Safaricom has been rumored to harass agents who want to run competitors' mobile money solutions, has this practice stopped? What is Safaricom doing to stop its agents from doing this?* Sidney, as you correctly state, that is a rumour. We opened up our M-PESA agency network in 2015 (we have now grown that network to over 124,000) – which means that our agents are free to provide services for other operators. You just need to walk around CBD and other towns in Kenya to see the multiple branding attesting to this. ------------------------------ *Note:* All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom’s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. http://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Terms_and_ Conditions/safaricom_email_terms_and_conditions.pdf _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com 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. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/timoriedo%40gmail.com 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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"Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 1 Questions
by Stephen Chege 15 Feb '17

15 Feb '17

Dear all Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses. regards Steve Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues Guideline: Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services ) b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G) c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts) d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc) Questions+Comments from Discussions: Barrack Otieno: My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area. Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year. Ali Hussein How is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016. The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund. The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas. A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions. For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m. Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months. The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC). As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge. In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation. 2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records. Edwin Kiama My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service. Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy. We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators. All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing. I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system. Walu J Affordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data. Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data. 2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now. Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy. Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children. Kevin Kamonye Hello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. Kevin Hi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs. Sydney Ochieng I'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer. Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can. Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya. There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above. In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000. Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz. Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else. Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service. Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee. What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it. However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers. Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya. In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law. Ali Hussein Actually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair. Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date. However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources. Grace Bomu Thank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years. Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/investor-relation/sustainability Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle. Racheal Nakitare Dear Walu et'al Thank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously. How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years. Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? Walu, Bonface, Rachel, The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality. Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically. Boniface Witaba @Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. 1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level? Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents. Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions. In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously. We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them. 2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month. Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regards Timothy Oriedo Safaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy. Timothy Oriedo Thank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers. Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming. While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa. b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya. c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant. d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers? Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify. First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch. There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then? Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app. This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks. Liz Orembo Thanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers. On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem. Lastly, why should my bundles expire? Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely. In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line. George Sidney Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers. Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further. Esther Kamande Thanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve. Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities. Odhiambo Washington I am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-) Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk. Emmanuel Khisa Safaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and >resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots. I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :-) Mwendwa Kivuva Thank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s 1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? 2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? 3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds? 4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? Mwendwa, I have answered this above. Vincent Mosoti Thanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; 1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon. 2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator. We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network. 3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services. We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA. From: Stephen Chege Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 To: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear all Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification. We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise. Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going! regards Steve From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Grace Githaiga via kictanet Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 To: Stephen Chege Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear Listers Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised. @Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion. We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information. Once again, all your contributions are valued. Best regards Githaiga, Grace Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga(a)hotmail.com<mailto:ggithaiga@hotmail.com> Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke<http://www.kictanet.or.ke> "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama. ________________________________ Note: All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom’s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. http://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Terms_and_Conditions/safaricom_…

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"Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 2 Questions
by Stephen Chege 15 Feb '17

15 Feb '17

Dear all Below are the responses to Day 2 Questions. We are picking up the supplementary questions and will respond to them. regards Steve Talk-2-Safaricom, Day 2 (Tuesday 7th Feb)- Competition Issues Guideline: Share your perspective as to whether or not Safaricom is dominant in the following sub-sectors and whether some intervention is required from the regulator. The current data from CA<http://www.ca.go.ke/images/downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Repor…> (Q1, 2016-17) could be a useful guideline for the dominance debate. It gives Safcom the following market share - a) Mobile Subscribers (69% of all subscribers, closest rival17.5%) ‘; b) Voice Traffic (76% of voice traffic, closest rival 13.8%) c) Data/Internet Subsector, (63.2% of mobile internet subscriptions, closest rival 21%) d) Mobile Money Transactions ( 81% of all mobile money transactions, closes rival 16%) I am sure we cannot ask or blame Safaricom for what it may consider a successful state of affairs :-) So please share your perspective as to whether or not Safaricom is dominant in the following sub-sectors and whether or not some intervention is required from the regulator in as far as making the market more competitive. Floor is open. Questions+Comments from Discussions: Ali Hussein @Walu What strategic purpose would splitting Safaricom have on their business? I'm fundamentally opposed to government imposed splits. Let's look at one of the most famous splits:- Standard Oil in the US. It was split into 34 companies by the justice department. The most prominent of these were Exxon, Mobil and Chevron. Many years later through 'Mergers and Acquisitions' the original company is now more or less back as ExxonMobil, whose CEO has incidentally been appointed by The Donald to be Secretary of State. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil Having said that I think Mpesa remaining in Safaricom is stunting it's growth. But then that's their prerogative not anybody else's. I keep on saying that someone out there is quietly plotting to eat Safaricom's lunch. If they snooze. Ali, Walu we cannot speculate as to what action will be proposed against Safaricom. However we take the very strong view that competition in our sector should not be viewed only from the perspective of the so called smaller players. Questions should be asked how the situation came to be given that two of the current players were licensed at practically the same time. Specifically, the issue of investment in infrastructure should be examined in detail. Regulatory intervention should not be used to reward failure to invest. Also Ali correctly states, we also have to keep investing and innovating or else we shall soon be someone’s lunch. Also, the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects Report<http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/842861463605615468/Global-Economic-Prospect…> (2016) notes, if Kenya’s economy wants to continue to grow at a ‘robust’ pace, empowering the mobile and technology sectors is critical as they provide the critical infrastructure needed for growth. Barrack Otieno Many thanks for your email, i applaud Safaricom for its aggressive and smart approach that has made it a leader. My question will be focused on connecting the unconnected. Is there an effort to tailor make the customer service platform to include other local languages say, Luhya, Luo or Maa?, i think this will encourage more citizens who traditionally dont speak English and or Swahili to embrace telecommunications and or related services. Good question Barrack, - we undertake a lot of investment in people and systems to ensure that all our customers are able to get service from our Call Centre in their preferred language. We have local dialect speakers in our Customer Centres and our Retail touch points who can serve all Kenyans in the event that they are not conversant with Kiswahili or English. So this is well covered. In fact our concern now is Chinese speakers! We have noted a significant number of calls from these customers. 2) What is Safaricoms experience with Mshwari - payments , defaults in light of the challenging economic times ?, i am sure this will be an indicator of the health of the economy. M-Shwari is a CBA product that is delivered via the Safaricom platform. According to CBA, less than 2% of borrowers default on their repayments. M-Shwari leverages the ubiquity of mobile devices, Safaricom’s M-PESA and partnership with CBA to enable Kenyans operate and maintain a bank account through their mobile device. This service is quite successful, and in every single minute our two partners (CBA and KCB) process two loans every second on both their M-Shwari and KCB-M-PESA products. Secondly i am curious to know the mechanism that is in place to refund people who might have money on Mpesa or Mshwari and pass on yet their relatives don't claim the money. Our policy is that the M-PESA and M-Shwari balances are maintained in the individual’s accounts until they are claimed by their personal representatives or executors of their Will. To make a claim, such representatives or executors are required to present Letters of Administration or a Grant of Probate issued by a Court and complete the relevant claim forms available at any of our retail shops countrywide. The money is then paid to them. If this money is not claimed within two years, then the law requires us to remit the balances in those accounts to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority. 3) On the data front , can we have a status update of the Safaricom Fibre to the Home Project?, which areas have been covered?, which areas have not been covered, any challenges the company has faced from the citizens, county governments and regulators. Regards We have just launched this project which complements our strategy to provide our customers end-to-end connectivity whether they are on-the-go or at home. So far we have fibre installed next to 20,000 homes to date meaning it will be easy to connect these residential areas to high speed fixed data. This is an ongoing effort which we see as our next strategic area for development. A lot of the concerns from citizens is the troublesome excavation works where the fibre is buried. We deal with these by ensuring our contractors restore the excavated areas back to the previous condition. With County Governments the concern is around Way Leaves. A number of us in this forum were involved in the drafting of the Critical Infrastructure Bill which, among other issues, sought to address the issues of delays in obtaining Way Leaves and in general ensuring that ICT infrastructure (including fibre optic cable) is deemed as utility and exempted from delays in approvals. I hope that Bill eventually passes into law. Victor Kapiyo Safaricom has over the years benefited from its current position, raking in billions in profits for its shareholders. As a public listed company, what has the company done so far to confer some of these benefits to the public, whether as part of its CSR, investments or approaches in business operations etc.? Regards, As a business, we have taken a conscious decision that our purpose is not solely to build value for our shareholders- which is an important part of what we do. We have at the centre of all the business we undertake a commitment to Transform Lives. We do this beyond the traditional realm of voice, data and mobile money services through partnerships in health, agriculture, the music and the arts space, backing and providing thought leadership for innovation, leading a corporate push to adopt the SDGs as well as projects such as the National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service to enhance security or the 23,000 primary schools which will benefit from free internet connectivity from Safaricom. Under our Corporate Responsibility program, we have helped over 1.2 million Kenyans receive health services, put 800,000 students in decent classrooms, and supported 1.25 million Kenyans through disaster response. We have provided over 300,000 people with access safe and clean water, and have economically empowered over 250,000 people. You may see more of our projects here: www.safaricom.co.ke/foundation<http://www.safaricom.co.ke/foundation> and I invite any one of you to let us know if they are any areas that we should cover more. We truly believe in building our relevance beyond the bottom line to create a sustainable organisation that adds value for all Kenyans. Grace Bomu I will ask a question on behalf of my teenager friend, "If Safcom makes so much profit, why can't it lower data costs? Hi Grace, please see my earlier response to Sidney on this matter. Odhiambo Washington On dominance on the above (except (c), I cannot blame Safaricom or even try to mention dominance. It's something they have worked for. However, they also need to use this gigantic position to ensure coverage everywhere while lowering tariffs on voice, data and mostly Money Transfer fees. Talking of coverage, I have severally tweeted Safaricom about the lack of network coverage along the road from Kapiti Area all the way to that turn-off to Nanyuki. I think the place is called Marwa. I am wondering whether they take the feedback seriously or it's just that they don't expect much revenue from travelers on that section of the journey to Nyeri/Nanyuki. And what about to Ole Polos (asking for Barrack!) ?? Washington, we take all customer feedback seriously. It may take us some time to rectify some problems but we do act upon the complaints. As mentioned yesterday, our team is getting in touch with you to pinpoint these problem areas. A deep analysis will tell you that Safaricom charges for money transfer are very expensive. The trick is in the amounts you transfer - and they take advantage of the fact that most clients will want to do a transfer at once, instead of in bits, which I don't think is fair. The cost of sending 2,500 whether at once or in 1,000, 1000, 500 should be the same. Afterall it's all _digital_ money, not some individuals carrying the cash to destinations/final users :-) As mentioned before, we believe that our charges are competitive and reflect the convenience of transferring your money securely and efficiently. It is also important to note that there is a network cost element to each portion of your transaction, which is why the fees cannot be standardised in the manner you suggest. On money transfer and especially with regard to customer (or is it consumer?) protection, I still think Safaricom is capable of doing more with regard to those transactions where someone ends up sending to the wrong number. Much as they have introduced number lookups from the contacts stored on the SIM card, I believe number lookups from the contacts stored on the phone shouldn't be such an uphill task. Do they have plans for this? Our second generation M-PESA system has enabled the service known as Hakikisha, which allows you to confirm the recipient details prior to the transaction being completed, using the customer’s officially registered details. Furthermore, we have made it very simple to initiate a reversal in the event is erroneously sent to the wrong recipient. Nonetheless I can confirm that we are working on an M-PESA App which will, among other things, be able to seamlessly retrieve recipient details directly from the contacts in your phonebook further minimising chances of error. The App is currently being Piloted. Being almost the world's pioneer of mobile money transfer, can they also pioneer a legal mechanism to deal with/mitigate cases where people have sent money to the wrong numbers by mistake? That is one area that remains wanting. When a customer calls us and lets us know that the money was sent to the wrong number, we can usually reverse it if the money has not been withdrawn. However if the money has been withdrawn they are in essence raising a legal dispute. Our role as a telecoms provider is limited to service provision and therefore we are not empowered to take on the investigative elements of such a legal dispute. What we can do is to provide network tools that can assist with minimising the chance of error – which is why introduced services like Hakikisha and engage in continuous customer education around this issue. At the moment, their 15sec option to mitigate that isn't quite intuitive. The "Cancel' option actually means 'go ahead and do the transfer', but most people have confused it with what "Cancel" in any other realm means. They should re-engineer the option to have the meaning/options expected by users..(Oh, was I supposed to give feedback or ask questions?) Besides, they should increase the time to 30secs, and also sponsor a media campaign to enlighten their clients. Washington, this solution is flash-enabled, so whether the button says ‘Ignore’ while others say ‘Cancel’ depends purely on the type of handset the user owns. The simple rule of thumb is that any response is required in order to stop the transactions, not responding means the transactions will proceed. Currently the timeout period is 25 seconds, which some users say is too long! Walu J I just have one question for Safcom with respect to Competition. Are they willing to: a) Be split into several independent units? As in make the Mobile money business (MPESA) a separate and autonomous unit from their Voice and Data side of business? We believe that the decision to split or not to split should lie with the company. All I will say is that our current model has worked very well for us so far. b) Open up MPESA service such that if I vuka(migrate) to competition e.g Airtel, I do not lose the MPESA facility? Obviously this would be an affront to their 'stronghold' but sometimes it may spice up the market a bit. This maybe necessary considering that their market share lead has not changed much over the last 10years. Which may point to a market failure or maybe they are just clever than everyone else :-). That is a big ask Walu but again the decision to implement such an initiative should lie with us. Innovation is the fuel that powers success in business. If this is taken away and commoditised through Regulatory intervention this will send all the wrong signals. Timothy Oriedo My question on today's topic. Are Frenemy and Coopetion terms alien to Safaricom's strategy? I observe aggressive canibalization forward, backward, laterally and upwards. With previous moves of backward integration to own infrastructure distribution - laying out of own fibre capacity reducing lease to capacity and forward integration of remodelling the airtime / scratchcards product distribution structure of their dealerships making it less lucrative for them to operate. Laterally through launch of peripheral services that would rather belong to their business partners email.e.g mobile money-banking, the big box-media etc. Isn't it unfair to compete with your suppliers and clients in the name of value chain innovation ? Wow! There are many loaded statements here, most of which are not entirely factual. Be that as it may, we compete fairly and we are interested in operating in an environment where other operators thrive because we believe there is significant opportunity for us all. Timothy trust me when I say we want to Transform Lives. It is at the centre of all we do – I have personally seen business plans set aside because they were not transformative for our customer. Even as we invest in our own fibre network, we are working with a number of local companies to implement the service – the same goes for any other element of our business including airtime distribution, which is done primarily through over 250,000 dealers country-wide. At a broader level, our cross-industry partnerships such as those we have with M-KOPA, KARA<http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2017/02/safaricom-partners-kara-boost-n…> or Mulley’s Supermarket<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YlczoCpvYI> – allow us to merge our collective strengths to provide unique products for the market. Lastly apart from mpesa transaction of less than 100 Bob, Please Call Me and checking for airtime balance which is the other Freemium service that safaricom is know for? The way to look at these so called ‘Freemium’ services is their reach and value to the person using them. To a college student who wants to communicate but doesn’t have any airtime a ‘Please Call Me Text” is not a small thing. You can imagine this for M-PESA customer who needs to send Kshs. 100. I can confirm that transaction numbers in this category have grown by more than 130% since we waived the charges. These may appear to be just two services but their reach is enormous given the number of customers who use them. Other ‘Freemiums’ include access to our website – any time you land on the site there is no charge and of course our Customer Care. Sydney Ochieng Safaricom has been rumored to harass agents who want to run competitors' mobile money solutions, has this practice stopped? What is Safaricom doing to stop its agents from doing this? Sidney, as you correctly state, that is a rumour. We opened up our M-PESA agency network in 2015 (we have now grown that network to over 124,000) – which means that our agents are free to provide services for other operators. You just need to walk around CBD and other towns in Kenya to see the multiple branding attesting to this. ________________________________ Note: All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom’s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. http://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Terms_and_Conditions/safaricom_…

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