Andrea,
Reading this from Dar where I am struggling to get TTCL to
give us a connection to their fibre network so that we can have a 'fibre all
through' solution to our office. Been here for the implementation
since Friday but still no hope of a breakthrough mainly due to TTCL's
bureaucracy and attitude. Clearly competition would help here! I would
definitely be concerned if 'France Telecom to be granted an exclusive operational and maintenance
contract for the government-owned, multimillion-dollar nationwide optic fibre
network.' Having an operational and
maintenance contract for NOFB is a good thing but would hope it would be done
through competitive bidding...
Victor
Dear all,
I have been quite intrigued by the negotiations
between GoK and France Telecom over their Telkom acquisition that were covered
nicely consistently by the East African in recent weeks.
The latest
instalment here:
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/How%20the%20French%20got%20their%20way%20in%20battle%20for%20Telkom%20Kenya/-/2558/942312/-/gktealz/-/index.html
The
article states that GoK and France Telecom have come to an agreements under
which
- GoK will pay the USD10m fee for the 3G license for Telkom - in that
context, I'd be curious to know if CCk will refund USD15m to Safaricom as,
from what I understand, they had initially promised to do if the license fee
will be lowered from its initial USD25m?
- GoK will clear overdue bills to Telkom, contributions to the pension fund,
overdue payment to KBC: no issue with these since it appears fair enough that
GoK clears liabilities that precede the privatisation (never mind the question
why GoK/parastatals have been let to accumulate such obligations in the first
place).
- Telkom to manage and control GoK's 20% stake in TEAMS.
- France Telecom to be granted an exclusive operational and maintenance
contract for the government-owned, multimillion-dollar nationwide optic fibre
network. Since we had all these elaborate discussions recently in the context
of the new tariff regulations regarding competition and level playing field, I
wonder how this helps to create a level playing field?
I haven't
read much from GoK/CCK/Min of Information on this so far, so first of all, I'd
be curious to know how much of the East African coverage is accurate, and if
not, what the facts are - if the PS Information is reading along?
And
then I'd be interested to hear opinions on how this will affect the competitive
landscape. Anyone thoughts?
Have a good day and keep warm :)
Andrea
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