This is really sad news. Looking at Kenya's telecommunication market, safaricom holds all the cards from coverage to favourable government backed policies. This leaves competition with almost no lifeline. Having worked with a company that builds telco's infrastructure I can confirm 80% of the job is from safaricom while others just struggle with the other 20%. Am no economist but having one company domineering in any given sector is bad for the sector and the economy as the main focus is make money. To do this they cut back on employment and squeeze the supplies dry trying to cut on expenditure but if multiple companies operate we get higher employment level meaning more revenue to the government and healthy competition. The government's technocrats need get ahead of this and correct it otherwise we are not growing as a country or even as continent. On 28 Jan 2017 08:40, "Ali Hussein via kictanet" < [email protected]> wrote: Listers Another one bites the dust? I'm really curious as to whats going on in the Telco sector. Bharti Airtel has announced that it will be exiting 14 African countries within a year. The affected countries include: Chad, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The telecom operator is faced with poor performance across those markets. Two years ago, when Airtel began talks to sell off its operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone to Orange <http://mobilityarena.com/airtel-not-exiting-africa-despite-talks-to-sell-4-networks-to-orange/>, the company had stated that it wouldn’t be exiting Africa. Airtel plans Africa exit <http://mobilityarena.com/airtel-exit-nigeria-13-african-countries/> Is the African market too competitive or is the regulatory environment skewed towards a few players? *Ali Hussein* *Principal* *Hussein & Associates* Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. 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. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list [email protected] https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/muriukin%40gmail.com 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.