Listers,

It's surprising to see how one action from Safaricom can change the public's view tide from one of successful companies should be allowed to grow to Safaricom should be regulated.

This was bound to happen.

CCK and the CS ICT have previously been 'crucified' for even having the thoughts to reign in Safaricom. At some point, the attacks became almost personal.

But, this hasn't started now it's been ongoing for a long time e.g
1. Mpesa agents could not deal with other Networks
2. That fake attempt at ensuring Equitel's SIM overlay technology is killed at birth
3. Termination charges into their network. Everytime another carrier makes calling a Safaricom number cheaper, they raise the termination charges, kill off that Carriers plan, then subsequently normalize things.
4. ‎Disallowing selling of Dual SIM phones in their shops and also discouraging major manufacturers who deal with Safcom to sell them locally.
‎5. In marketing, guess who has the largest advertising budget around? One call from certain persons has been known to make it practically impossible for certain carries to air their ad's in certain stations...

Anyone who followed the Microsoft-Intel duopoly can see the exact same issues repeated here.

Regulating (although not breaking up Microsoft & Intel) is what freed the Internet from the M$ grip and we got Firefox, Javascript that works across browsers etc

Android & Co would not have happened in a previous Era. One call from Microsoft-Intel to Samsung would have made them drop any Android ideas they had, if they wanted to keep supplying RAM to the duo poly‎.

And the big elephant in the room: hasn't Safaricom not become too big to fail?

What would happen to our economy when:
1. The day Safaricom's Mpesa gets hacked and it all comes to a standstill
2. The day Safaricom does a KQ, invests badly, makes the wrong choices and it comes asking for a Ksh 300‎b to keep afloat or otherwise it will stop honoring Mpesa transactions?
3. If the majority owners decide to double their inter-connection  rates, having killed of every conceivable competition‎?

An industry can't be one player. While Safaricom grows, and we want it to grow, the whole telecom industry has to grow as well. Equitel has to succeed at least on the very least to offer the market a deep pocketed & credible alternative.

Waithaka Ngigi

Alliance Technologies
www.at.co.ke 
From: simiyu mse via kictanet
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 7:35 AM
To: Ngigi Waithaka
Reply To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Cc: simiyu mse; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Equitel - M-Pesa battle heats up as Safaricom hikes termination fees

I agree with your point.

This far there has been no display of abuse of its dominant status. However should they start flexing their muscles then the regulator is mandated to reign them in.

Good Morning

On Aug 21, 2015 4:21 AM, "Ali Hussein" <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:
Simiyu

Interesting analogy..However misplaced it is...:-)

I think this list's contributors have been a major proponent of Safaricom's against the ill-advised push to dismember it. Having said that we also cannot allow such actions to go unchallenged. It's perpetuating the impunity this country's citizens are fighting hard to destroy. 

40%+ of Kenya's GDP passes through the Mpesa system. It has become the de-facto ATM Network for the country hence restrictive tendencies should not be allowed. This is a perfect (if what Safaricom has done against Equitel is true) opportunity for the regulator to show us why they were once voted the best regulator in Africa. 

Can the regulator stand up and be counted? 

Ali Hussein
Hussein & Associates
+254 770 906375 / 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 21, 2015, at 6:43 AM, simiyu mse via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Its easy to throw stones at the elephant eating your vegetables calling it a brute when you are busy cordoning off its migration routes.

My 2cents in MPesa balance.

On Aug 21, 2015 3:32 AM, "Rose Lukalo -Owino via kictanet" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
I could not agree with you more JB. Pretty thoughtless move on part of Safcom at a time when it is under scrutiny and should be "playing nice"..
Rose

Media Policy Research Centre
Tel: 254-20-5216474
Cell: 254- 717-037154
email: rowino@mediapolicycentre.org
skype: rowinor
@mediapolicycen



On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 10:00 PM, Ohaga JB via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

The regulators have been searching rather 'unsuccessfully ' at examples or scenarios when Safcom abused it's dominance, I may well be very wrong but this here seems to me like the perfect example!

JB.


On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:57 Ali Hussein via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

This is definitely a case that requires serious attention from the regulator.

Ali Hussein
Tel: +254 713 601113

On Aug 20, 2015 8:36 PM, "ngethe.kariuki2007 via kictanet" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Since Safaricom is dominant in the mobile money termination market and in the absence of any regulation, it is in their interest to maximise returns in that "market segment" .So, Safaricom is behaving as expected! 

John Kariuki



Sent from Samsung Mobile



-------- Original message --------
From: Dennis Kioko via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date:
To: ngethe.kariuki2007@yahoo.co.uk
Cc: Dennis Kioko <dmbuvi@gmail.com>
Subject: [kictanet] Equitel - M-Pesa battle heats up as Safaricom hikes termination fees


Good Afternoon Listers,
Safaricom has increased termination fee - the amount of money paid to it by Equitel for money to be sent from one network to another. 

This has left Equitel users with high transaction costs on Equitel to M-Pesa transactions. See story here http://www.infotake.co.ke/2015/08/equitel-users-silently-hit-by-100.html


--
with Regards:

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