Barrack Indeed. Regulation needs to move from the days of fixed lines and telex machines to the era of the Internet, Internet of Things, Social Media etc. *Ali Hussein* *Hussein & Associates* Tel: +254 770 906375/ 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> Blog: www.alyhussein.com 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. On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 6:41 PM, Barrack Otieno via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Very insightful comments Phares and Ali,i think we should focus more on government being an enabler. We might want to re define what regulating means in the context of enabling.
My two cookies
On 4/15/15, Phares Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
A brilliant read is "The Org". It basically covers this. When organisations get larger, they become less nimble and more expensive to operate, which invariably allows for new technology outfits to come up.
The Taxi market was monopolised for a very long time. Uber has come to change that. Cloud services are changing the way people use IT, for the first time, bell weather companies like Cisco, IBM, HP and even Microsoft are struggling. In the US T-Mobile is changing how the telcos work.
So long as no undue advantage is given to any corporate, no company will be able to have an absolute monopoly. The petroleum companies have a monopoly for now, but at the current rate, either we'll not have a planet or that business model will die a natural death (extracting and selling hydrocarbons). They'd better morph into energy companies.
On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 7:37 AM, Ali Hussein via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Listers
Google is on the crosshairs of the European Regulator for behavior unbecoming of a Dominant Position. Reminds us of companies that were dominant and punished by Regulators the world over:-
Remember Microsoft? Intel? Palm? IBM? AT&T? Standard Oil?
What Regulators couldn't do the Market took care of. I have no problem with Regulation per se. What I have a problem with is this Old-School interpretation of Dominance when the world around us is shifting every second.
Let's reconfigure our thinking on how we define and execute regulation lest we kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
Take our local Telco space. If we consider Safaricom playing in one
space
- data and mobile money then we can easily say Yes! It is dominant. But consider this:-
1. Zuku dominates the Triple Play space. No actually, just the two play space. - Paid TV (debatable that they are dominant here with the proliferation of digital TV) and Internet at home. Strong contenders are entering the market led by Jamii and Safaricom. For some reason Zuku has decided to ignore the phone they give you with every installation.
2. Payments space. Lipa Na Mpesa, Equitel, Visa, MasterCard, PesaPal, white label products from Cellulant, Craft Silicon, Jambopay and other players scrambling to claim a share of the billions in the Payments space. So who is dominant?
3. Remittances:- this is a global $550 billion market with corridors across the world - from source markets in the GCC countries to the U.S. into India, Africa etc. Safaricom does about a billion in remittances, partnering with the likes of Western Union and every bank willing to jump onto the bandwagon. This is not a business that can be geo regulated in Kenya alone but needs a global mindset.
Regulators (and yes this includes CA, because in my humble opinion we should be the benchmark the world looks up to since it's now not a doubt that we are Ground Zero on innovation in mobile payments) need to balance the need to nurture innovation and protect consumers and trust the market will take care of the rest.
So instead of every regulator the world over scrambling to be the first to punish 'Dominant Positions' let them instead broadly define and ensure adherence to concepts like Net Neutrality, work with consumer protection agencies/organizations and embrace (really embrace) multi-stakeholderism.
Let them do this and I have a sneaky suspicion that Wanjiku (and her equivalents) the world over will take care of the rest.
*Ali Hussein* *Hussein & Associates* +254 770 906375 / 0713 601113
Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <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
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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.