Re: [kictanet] Seacom goes live- wait for TEAMS

3 Aug 2009

      Michael J,

Just gone through recent posts and i get the feeling it is MY post that seems to send you back into hibernation.  

Plse note that my comments have and will always be in good faith - even though they may sound provocative.  In Academia we call this Critique-ing (as opposed to criticizing).  It is an important part of the critical thinking process and serves to unveil and share knowledge (as it has just done with the sharing of published shareholding values in TEAMs, EAssy, SEACOM). 

But again not everyone is Academic, and not everyone is that gifted and successfull CEO or that good Politician, or that top Technocrat  or that skillfull Internet Engineer, or that Media die-hard or that Consumer die-hard - just to mention a few of the profiles that have continued to define the KICTAnet Value simply by hanging in there - even when they felt totally misunderstood. 

walu.
nb: on a happier note as you hibernate- I have finally pinged from .KE over the Safaricom modem and boy, the results indicate its 3times faster! I agree with Aki's comments.

--- On Sat, 8/1/09, Michael Joseph <MJoseph@Safaricom.co.ke> wrote:
...
From: Michael Joseph <MJoseph@Safaricom.co.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Seacom goes live- wait for TEAMS
To: jwalu@yahoo.com
Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009, 9:00 PM
Re: [kictanet] Seacom goes live- wait for
TEAMS
I think the allegations and language used
on this list really discourage real informative comment.
For information the shareholders of the Teams cable, who
are most of the telecom operators in Kenya, will own and
manage the cable and will sell their capacity both wholesale
and retail as they see fit. The GOK owns 20%.
The Seacom cable is owned by a separate set of shareholders
and this info is publically available.
The Eassy cable will be owned by another group of
shareholders including a number of African telecom
operators. This info is also publically available.
Not one shareholder will want to price themselves out of
the market and, as another commentator mentioned earlier,
the first to market with competitive prices will gain the
most.
I broke my silence on this subject a few days ago and I
regret it now as mostly the comments have been somewhat
impolite, to put it mildly. I will refrain in future.
Regards
Michael Joseph
CEO
Safaricom Limited
BlackBerryÂ® powered by Safaricom
----- Original Message -----
From:
kictanet-bounces+mjoseph=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke
<kictanet-bounces+mjoseph=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
To: Michael Joseph
Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Sat Aug 01 19:16:51 2009
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Seacom goes live- wait for TEAMS
Competition?
3 cables does NOT = competition.
As Waudo mentioned elsewhere in his posts, the big boys and
girls sitting on TEAMs board are the same ones on SEACOM,
EASSy and most likely anything else likely to land in
Mombasa in the near future.
Basically you are looking at a conducive\cartel
environment for fixing prices - think of our oil industry.
Yes you have competition in the name of Agip, Total, Caltex,
etc but has that brought down prices for gas?
Probably am being paranoid but I am waiting for the case
study where public good won over private profits...maybe it
will happen in another 4 months as the PS said.  And
when it happens it should  should not be the misleading
by 1-5% price drops.  Ideally for the TEAMs
(tax-payers) cable you should be asking for the less than
100USD per MB prices that have been floated around over the
recent years. And that should be per month rates NOT the
punitive per byte of download rates.
walu.
--- On Sat, 8/1/09, Gakuru Alex
<alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
...
From: Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com>
...
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Seacom goes live- wait for
TEAMS
...
To: jwalu@yahoo.com
...
Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
...
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009, 12:54 PM
...
Competition!! Yes indeed is consumers
...
best friend.
...
...
In fact, instead of staying out all night pinging,
pinging,
...
and
...
pinging.. and nothing much changes...then burning
ourselves
...
out
...
arguing on Seacom pricing, we should now strategise
how to
...
fuel more
...
competition, confront next connectivity
frontier-rural.
...
...
Skunkworks are pleased to inform you that PS Ndemo
will be
...
talking to
...
us about the one million laptops stimulus, technology
...
innovation and
...
entrepreneurship- On Tuesday next week (4th August).
...
...
I intend to ask him "what would be the
government's plans
...
regards
...
hooking Kenya up with http://www.o3bnetworks.com/?"
...
...
See the attached image.
...
...
Regards,
...
...
Alex
...
...
On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 3:41 AM, Joseph
Mucheru<mucheru@google.com>
...
wrote:
...
...
Walu,
...
...
...
...
I personally think it is a bit simpler than that.
Over
...
the many years we
...
...
have lobbied for better services and/or prices in
the
...
country, the one sure
...
...
thing that always worked was competition. In the
case
...
of the cables, I think
...
...
the competitive pressures are much more for the
...
operators as the investment
...
...
(stakes) are much higher. By various calculations
both
...
Seacom and Teams have
...
...
more than three times the current bandwidth
demand.
...
That means the wiser
...
...
operators will not only be the ones that are
first to
...
market, but those that
...
...
give the right price to attract the economies of
scale
...
they need to ever get
...
...
back their investment. Any operator that delays
this
...
process will only have
...
...
much more future cost to convincing consumers to
get
...
onto their network.
...
...
...
...
I am convinced right now it is a consumers market
and
...
what will be
...
...
interesting is which operators are able to see
things
...
from a long-term
...
...
perspective and win the market. The fact that
some
...
operators have a much
...
...
broader and wider local loop infrastructure only
makes
...
this more interesting
...
...
and does not give outright victory to one.
...
...
...
...
In summary, investment in the cables is a sunk
cost
...
and the game now is who
...
...
can get the user numbers on their network. Any
...
short-term gains by an
...
...
operator through higer prices will cost them
...
significantly more in the
...
...
long-run.
...
...
...
...
my 2cts worth
...
...
...
...
Joe Mucheru
...
...
...
...
On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 1:14 AM, Walubengo J
<jwalu@yahoo.com>
...
wrote:
...
...
...
...
...
...
Waudo,
...
...
...
...
...
...
Difference -at least on paper- is that TEAMS
was
...
put up with Tax payers
...
...
...
money by close to 40% (i think). Â So you
and me
...
have a 40% say or demand
...
...
...
that they sell the bandwidth commodity at
cost.
...
Â But you and me (tax payers)
...
...
...
have 0% (zero%) shares in SEACOM.
...
...
...
...
...
...
SEACOM was put up with 100% private money -
only
...
the individual
...
...
...
shareholders can decide on pricing (remember
the
...
famous SAT3 cable on the
...
...
...
west-african cost that had little impact on
...
pricing? the individual
...
...
...
shareholders decided to keep the prices just
1-5%
...
below satellite in order
...
...
...
to recoup investment with the shortest
timeframes.
...
Â 15 years later, the
...
...
...
prcing was still the same at 1-5% satellite
costs.
...
Â That is called Business-
...
...
...
increasing shareholders value and yes nobody
...
should apologies for that)
...
...
...
...
...
...
In short, SEACOM can go the SAT3 way and you
and
...
CCK can shout as much as
...
...
...
they want and they have every right not to
care.
...
Â BUT with TEAMS you and i
...
...
...
do have a say - however small it is or it
maybe.
...
...
...
...
...
...
And its pretty grey area how say like Safcom
with
...
shares on both cables
...
...
...
can be compelled to reduce prices because if
push
...
comes to shove Safcom can
...
...
...
say their data is strictly running on the
...
(private) SEACOM cable which is
...
...
...
exempt from all the regulatory pressures. It
can
...
chose to say TEAMS is
...
...
...
simply it back-up route.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Thats why I think we are breaking new ground
here
...
and its going to be very
...
...
...
interesting...
...
...
...
...
...
...
walu.
...
...
...
...
...
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