Hi Warigia - First sorry for missing ur big day due to some other commitment I had. I do not believe governments or governmental agencies should set consumer prices on anything. That is the work of market forces through competition. What governments need to do is ensure an environment that fosters competition. The example of ATT is from the old days when ATT was a monopoly operator. It reminds me of the 1998 Kenya Communications Act that gave monopoly status to Telkom Kenya in provision of some services such as landlines in Nairobi and international telephony. The mistaken rationale was that Telkom would rake in some "super profits" which would in turn be utilised in universal access provision. Needless to say those objectives were never attained. All along we prodded the Government to free the market through competition and private sector investment. When this happend as in the case of the mobile telephony sector the results in terms of better and more afrordable services were quick to manifest. Our argument in the case of universal access was that it was better for the Government to allow freedom in the market and then use fiscal instruments to raise funds from the IMPROVED, EXPANDED and CHEAPER  services. This is being done today through a 10% excise tax on airtime and, believe me, most users do not even notice it.
 
With the marine fibre I noticed what looked like cross-ownership and cross-interest in the different ventures and maybe that can have an effect on the competitive environment necessary to bring prices down significantly.
 
Kind Regards,
Waudo
 
 
On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:21 +0300, "warigia bowman" <warigia@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Brian

 
Do you believe that ISPs in Kenya are sufficiently competitive to keep prices fair? I am just asking. I really do not know. 

 
What about the concern people have expressed that KDN has dropped prices dramatically to ISPs, but consumers are not seeing the benefit. 

 
By the way, it is WONDERFUL to hear from you!

 
Rigia

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 11:18 AM, Brian Munyao Longwe <blongwe@gmail.com> wrote:
Good point Warigia and the same applies here - CCK can and have exercised their authority to regulate voice pricing - this is especially true when there is either a monopoly or an operator with significant market share.

The same does not apply to market sectors like Internet services because there is full competition and never any player with significant market share. In the USA - FCC have never regulated Internet or bandwidth pricing as market forces generally accomplish this.

Best regards,

Brian
 
On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 11:11 AM, warigia bowman <warigia@gmail.com> wrote:
 
 
Dear colleagues 

 
Rates of operators can and have been regulated, In fact, in the United States we had something called rate of return regulation when ATT was a monopoly. They were allowed to charge a high rate, but in exchange, they had to ensure every tiny village of even 200 had phone service. Why can't our operators do that? 

 
Sincerely, Warigia

On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 8:40 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:
 
 
Alex,

Your have rightly qaulified your solution - as simple.  Indeed it is. Infact too simplistic to fly.  The idea that the Regulator can reign in Operators who charge "high" internet rates cannot and will not work.  Think about the in-famous SAT3 fiber link on the west coast of africa.  Ask yourself why the Regulators in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Angola, S-Africa etc have never  stepped in and revoked licensces of operators over the last 15yrs of high internet costs offered on the fiber...

The answers are very complex...I will actually be discussing these limitations and available interventions in some upcoming ICT conference at Strath University in Sept 09 and I dont want to pre-empt ;-)....

walu.


--- On Fri, 8/14/09, Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Fwd: the long fibre lie... Ndemo should resign if internet prices do not drop as he promised!!
> To: "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
> Date: Friday, August 14, 2009, 8:44 PM
> On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 7:38 PM,
> David Kiania | Asentric Consulting
> Ltd<kianiadee@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Set the precedence what's your  solution? Am sure if
> you did we'd have
> > heard it by now. This thread is a knee jerk reaction
> to a bad internet
> > day, we all have one.
> >
>
> Simple, the entity under Ndemo's docket that grants these
> cowboy
> operators licenses puts it's foot down and warn that I may
> revoke
> licenses for operators that charge waaaay up in the sky not
> just above
> cost but ABOVE acceptable international pricing benchmarks.
> They've
> all the data they need. Imagine, for example, Safaricom on
> the verge
> of losing their license, price drops, drops, drops, drops,
> drops, and
> drops..... across board.
>
> Would this be acceptable to you?
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>





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--
Dr. Warigia Bowman
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The Department of Public Policy Leadership
The University of Mississippi
107 Odom Hall
University, MS 38677

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EMAIL: mwbowman@olemiss.edu
 

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Brian Munyao Longwe
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cell:  + 254 722 518 744
blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com
 



--
Dr. Warigia Bowman
Assistant Professor
The Department of Public Policy Leadership
The University of Mississippi
107 Odom Hall
University, MS 38677

URL: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/leadership/index.html
PHONE: 662-915-1904
EMAIL: mwbowman@olemiss.edu