|
Nice ideas - by the way - dont shout too much, I
know a couple of chaps who are doing this "under the hood" ;-)
And so maybe the question would be to what extent has the Regulatory
environment failed to address this segment of business that perhaprs can have
a +ve impact on the Internet retail prices?
I know they unbundled the last-mile during the fixed-telcom days, probably it
is about time they also unbundled the "last-mile" for the mobile
operators? that would be quite an interesting proposition - but it can get
most of your ideas running over rather than under the hood..
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, 4:08 PM
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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