Warigia,

Below message to consumers and skunkworks lists sparked the heated discussions.

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 7:11 AM, Alex Gakuru<gakuru@gmail.com> wrote:
> What a long optics fibre lie the whole thing was...
>
> ---Business Daily---
>
> "we do not anticipate that [Internet] prices will drop as drastically
> as initially indicated or within a short time-frame"
>
> <http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Company%20Industry/-/539550/639386/-/u8ardrz/-/index.html>
>
> "..it was planning to implement an immediate 24 per cent discount on
> its internet charges and promised higher discounts once connections to
> international fibre optic links went live by the end of next month.."
>
> <http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Company%20Industry/-/539550/638808/-/u8bcyoz/-/index.html>
>
> ---summary---
> in short, consumers are going to continue being ripped-off while a
> just too comfortable "hands-off" government sits back pretentiously
> expecting "market-forces" to push prices down -
>
> The way I see it? we have several options a) to demand government
> officers( Ndemo & Co.) who promised cheap internet to resign, b)
> demand regulator to wake up and proactively set the prices c) continue
> living in a denial and that,hopefully, one day we will have
> "affordable" internet in Kenya.
>
> Where is Bitange Ndemo and and why did he lie to us and raised
> Kenyans' hopes for cheap internet? we shall have serious problems to
> believe anything he promises henceforth. He should resign if internet
> prices do not go down as he promised.
>
> And who runs this country anyway? telecommunication companies or the
> government and the regulator?
>
> Alex
> _______________________________________________
> ke-internetusers mailing list
> ke-internetusers@bdix.net
> http://www.bdix.net/mailman/listinfo/ke-internetusers
>

Waundo,

Kenya current problem not that old one, its different and it is
"failed telecommunications market liberarisation."


"  3.4.    Most rural areas still do not have Internet access despite
the fact that there
         are many licensed ISPs. Additionally, the quality of service has not
         improved. Isn’t there a need to make provisions to enable
rural access and
         enforce Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to guarantee quality
of service?
The licensed operators present said that the major factors hindering
their rollout to the
rural areas are:
           o High cost of connectivity offered by carriers.
Competition has been used,
                as a means to lower prices however there seems to be
no correlation
                between the cost and the number of players in the
market. The licensing
                of more players in the IG&BO and PDNO licence has not
translated to
                lower access costs.
           o Competition may also be used as a means to improving
quality of service
                delivery and encourage the use of Service Level
Agreements (SLA). This
                however has not been evident in the Kenyan market.
           o Finally, competition should result in increased access
and availability to
                telecommunication service and infrastructure.
However, since rural areas
                are not economically viable, most operators
concentrate operations in
                urban centres."

<http://www.cck.go.ke/isp_stakeholders.pdf>

The question begs... What are the Ministry of Information and
Communications and the Regulator actually doing to ensure that
consumers benefit?

For further erodes hopes, if not adds insult to consumers injuries, to
read on today's Business Daily "BUYOUT CCK says local ownership rule
waived to allow foreign investor own more than 80 p.c"

Could some people in government actually responsible and/or prefer the
statu-quo to remain? Now is the time to ask some of these hard
questions- "academics" aside!

Alex

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 12:28 PM, waudo siganga<emailsignet@mailcan.com> wrote:
> 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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>