With the ISPs supply chain (support, reselling, etc) “outsourced”
to independent providers, prices will come down and yes, content will come.
Picture this:
·
Their overheads in getting connectivity to homes (some quite “remote”)
will be diminished as entrepreneurs such as myself will be willing to offer
last mile services by offering connections to the flats/apts where I stay and
buy bandwidth from the cheapest provider and resell – competition then
sets in. I have to be the most affordable in my estate/village
·
I could offer virtual apartment searches at a minimal cost (this
is an underground industry by itself as we speak-apartment viewing costs 1K a
day)
·
I could offer bespoke, hosted SaaS, etc, at affordable
rates (people can now afford to be online all the time)
·
I could supplement my income teaching class 8’s, form 4’s,
college students in Math, Science, etc. Schools can enhance their distance
learning offerings
·
TV stations can have their shows online ( I hate commercials and
programs that least interest me), with millions ready to watch these at
affordable rates…enormous advertising revenue for them.
·
I can make extra income by becoming a customer service agent of
company X that can ill afford to hire me full time. Giving the company’s
customers 24/7 support, cheaply.
·
Order a consignment of bananas from Kisii, or Tilapia from
Migingo (the seller there is able to access a digital village and market
his/her produce, cyber rates will be less than 25 cents per minute of high
speed access)
·
I can access government services at anytime of the day
·
The list is endless
In a nutshell, innovation will kick in, content will be
available and users will be in abundance.
Edwin
Sales without Customer Service........is
like stuffing money into a pocket full of holes.
DAVID TOOMA
From: Walubengo J
[mailto:jwalu@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 2:39 PM
To: Edwin Onchari
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'
Subject: RE: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame?
|
@ Edwin,
By saying ISPs/Telcos to "Open Up their Supply Chain" do you mean
"Force down the Retail Cost in order to stimulate demand?" - Hoping
to recoup cost through larger volume sales?
Again, the ASSUMPTION here is that lower costs will automatically stimulate
demand. Perhaps there's no demand because there's no local internet content
and as such dropping cost may not really increas demand.
Put differently, 90% of the Kenyans who are currently NOT using the internet,
dont, simply because there's NOTHING in it for them (why would my Dad get
online? or that farmer in Kirinyaga? to do facebook, yahoo, youtube?(.. the
current hot content "locally" here)).
In other words even giving them FREE internet will not get them online...but
it might get the Operators broke, forcing some of them to close shop and
eventually deny the few 10% of the current Kenyan Internet Users access to
the 'Net...far fetched but possible.
walu.
--- On Thu, 9/23/10, Edwin Onchari <eonchari@lynxbits.com>
wrote:
From: Edwin Onchari <eonchari@lynxbits.com>
Subject: RE: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame?
To: "'Walubengo J'" <jwalu@yahoo.com>
Cc: "'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010, 2:16 PM
Walu,
The ISPs/Telcos are to blame for the
sheer lack of innovation on their part. The one asset that they have not
leveraged on is the abundant; under-utilized IT human resource and
entrepreneurial base inKenya. Open up their supply chain to include this
group(s) will see the last mile issue sorted = more users= shared costs on
the bandwidth procured by ISPs=lowered retail prices
My take,
Edwin
From:
kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Walubengo J
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 1:04 PM
To: Edwin
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo-but who is to blame?
|
Yawe,
I think everyone (including ISPs) ASSUMED that the marine cable will
automatically crash the RETAIL internet prices. But ofcourse that
turned out to be false.
At the same time, it DOES NOT mean the marine cable was a wasted
effort. It simply means the marine cable is NECESSARY but NOT
SUFFICIENT to bring down retail internet prices.
I am not sure at this moment in time whom to blame for this. But I know its
not Dr. Ndemo nor the ISPs/Telcos. I am investigating this phenomena, and
perhaps, sometime future I could share the results...
walu.
@ Nnenna, your quotes from Senegal, Ivory Coast are juicy - but dig deeper
- since at face value, the mobile internet prices in .Ke look cheap, but in
long term reality(usage) they ARE NOT!
--- On Thu, 9/23/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [kictanet] ISPs slap Ndemo
To: jwalu@yahoo.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions"
<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010, 11:38 AM
The ISPs have now teamed up and agreed that
the cost of "International" Internet access will not be coming
down soon because we have less than 2.6% penetration.
Dr. Ndemo, this is a slap on you, wield your
big stick, or sorry not possible you recently handed it over to Orange.
There is only one solution to this issue
lets concentrate in developing local content thereby reducing the
dependence on the over hyped marine cable. But based on the
discussions on the commodity exchange system this will be an up hill task
as we question the credibility of everyone he tries to setup a local online
application or service.
I read an article on how Hon. Kilonzo is
planning to setup green houses in all the schools in his constituency while
the others are trying to provide computers to children who are not able to
get a balanced diet.
Again I repeat "I am ashamed to be a
member of the ICT fraternity" but like was once said by
a disgruntled KANU memebrr "I shall remain the opposition
within"
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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