Walu,

The USD 2.00 per monrh is certainly not viable YET even in developed nations. For whatever reasons (folly, stress, peer pressure) many of us in Africa spend our meager means on non essentials (to peace and productivity) such as such as 'kumi kumi', 'dogo dogo's, mdudu's here and there....

One way to go is micro-offer's of 1GB for about KShs 150. This translates to 10GB of data for KShs 1,500.00 (USD 20.00). With network (efficiency) technology improvements it is only a matter of time before this happens. Do netbooks today not have more power than mainframes of yester year?

Who over the next 5 years is dumb enough to deny 200 Million African households 1GB of data  for USD 2.00? The current Safaricom offer is even surpassing that today in rural areas where there is low density - more bandwidth available to fewer people.

Someone recently wrote in a Daily Nation we need to start looking at Africans as hands to work not as mouths to feed....We just need to stop doing dumb things so that more of us in Africa can have USD 2.00 for 1GB of data.

 Walubengo J wrote:
Eric,

trust me its true...KDN is pushing bandwidth at very competitive rates to the so called 'end-users'.  But at 200USD that is about  15,000Ksh per 1MB which is TWICE the average salaries of Kenyan citizens(mwananchi).  Meaning the 'end-users' defined here are NOT mwananchi but corporates/SMEs, etc. Put differently KDN really plays at the wholesale layer (Kai may object but...) and their price drops are being enjoyed mostly by retailers (ISP/ASP).

We shall only celebrate meaningful and effective price-drops when for example AccessKenya/UUNET/Safcom etc say they are giving you unlimited 1MB links at around 2USD (Ksh 150) per month - if we are to take developed economies GDP per capita and their pricing for monthly broadband internet  and recalculating for  our context.

But I always have the rejoinder that I will understand if this does not happen tomorrow - since we are really are yet to mature the parameters that guarantee such wishful pricing. However, we should have specific plans that define the steps and timelines we are undertaking to mature such parameters - local content, affordable last-mile access, IXPs, Usage,  just to mention a few.

walu.




--- On Sat, 10/31/09, Eric M.K Osiakwan <emko@internetresearch.com.gh> wrote:

From: Eric M.K Osiakwan <emko@internetresearch.com.gh>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Uproar Over Internet Costs in Kenya
To: jwalu@yahoo.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009, 8:59 AM

Evidence is the name of the game, though we are not in court....:-)

TGIF.

Eric here


On 30 Oct 2009, at 00:08, alice munyua wrote:

> KDN, For example "is currently selling submarine capacity, delivered to the user at between 220 and 600 USD per 4 Mbps! This is an effective price of between 55 to 150 USD per Mbps depending on volume".
>
> Best
> Alice
>
> ------Original Message------
> From: alice munyua
> Sender: kictanet-bounces+alice=apc.org@lists.kictanet.or.ke
> To: alice@apc.org
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> ReplyTo: alice@apc.org
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Uproar Over Internet Costs in Kenya
> Sent: 30 Oct 2009 07:03
>
> Hi Eric
> Thank you for this posting. A question though, who wrote this piece and where did they get their information apart from quoting P.S. Ndemo?
>
> Best
> Alice
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric M.K Osiakwan <emko@internetresearch.com.gh>
> Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:14:14
> To: <alice@apc.org>
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Subject: [kictanet] Uproar Over Internet Costs in Kenya
>
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Eric M.K Osiakwan
Director
Internet Research
www.internetresearch.com.gh
emko@internetresearch.com.gh
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