"Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 1 Questions
Dear all Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses. regards Steve Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues Guideline: Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services ) b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G) c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts) d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc) Questions+Comments from Discussions: Barrack Otieno: My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area. Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year. Ali Hussein How is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016. The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund. The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas. A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions. For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m. Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months. The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC). As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge. In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation. 2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records. Edwin Kiama My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service. Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy. We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators. All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing. I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system. Walu J Affordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data. Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data. 2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now. Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy. Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children. Kevin Kamonye Hello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. Kevin Hi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs. Sydney Ochieng I'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer. Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can. Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya. There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above. In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000. Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz. Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else. Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service. Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee. What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it. However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers. Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya. In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law. Ali Hussein Actually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair. Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date. However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources. Grace Bomu Thank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years. Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/investor-relation/sustainability Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle. Racheal Nakitare Dear Walu et'al Thank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously. How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years. Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? Walu, Bonface, Rachel, The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality. Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically. Boniface Witaba @Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. 1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level? Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents. Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions. In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously. We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them. 2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month. Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regards Timothy Oriedo Safaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy. Timothy Oriedo Thank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers. Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming. While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa. b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya. c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant. d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers? Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify. First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch. There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then? Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app. This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks. Liz Orembo Thanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers. On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem. Lastly, why should my bundles expire? Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely. In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line. George Sidney Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers. Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further. Esther Kamande Thanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve. Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities. Odhiambo Washington I am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-) Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk. Emmanuel Khisa Safaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and >resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots. I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :-) Mwendwa Kivuva Thank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s 1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? 2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? 3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds? 4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? Mwendwa, I have answered this above. Vincent Mosoti Thanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; 1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon. 2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator. We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network. 3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services. We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA. From: Stephen Chege Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 To: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear all Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification. We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise. Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going! regards Steve From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Grace Githaiga via kictanet Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 To: Stephen Chege Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear Listers Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised. @Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion. We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information. Once again, all your contributions are valued. Best regards Githaiga, Grace Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com<mailto:ggithaiga@hotmail.com> Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke<http://www.kictanet.or.ke> "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama. ________________________________ Note: All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom’s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. http://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Terms_and_Conditions/safaricom_e...
Many thanks for the comprehensive answers Steve. I have been in touch with the engineers and i am looking forward to the issue being resolved and coverage increased to more than 70 % if possible. Ahsante On 2/14/17, Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Dear all
Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses.
regards
Steve
Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues Guideline: Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics
a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services ) b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G) c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts) d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc)
Questions+Comments from Discussions: Barrack Otieno:
My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area.
Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year.
Ali Hussein How is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu?
Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016. The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund. The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas. A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions. For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m. Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months. The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC). As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge. In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation.
2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis?
No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records.
Edwin Kiama
My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to?
No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing.
I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system.
Walu J
Affordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities?
Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data. Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data.
2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now.
Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy.
Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children.
Kevin Kamonye
Hello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. Kevin
Hi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs.
Sydney Ochieng
I'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more?
Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer.
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya.
There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above.
In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000.
Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz.
Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome.
Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else.
Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service.
Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee.
What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it?
Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it. However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers.
Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya.
In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law.
Ali Hussein Actually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair. Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date.
However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources.
Grace Bomu Thank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years. Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/investor-relation/sustainability
Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle.
Racheal Nakitare
Dear Walu et'al
Thank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights.
Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously.
How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years.
Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration?
Walu, Bonface, Rachel, The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality. Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area.
In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically.
Boniface Witaba
@Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties.
1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level?
Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents. Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions. In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously. We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them.
2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data?
When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month.
Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regards Timothy Oriedo Safaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy.
Timothy Oriedo Thank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions.
Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers.
Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming. While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa.
b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya.
c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant.
d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers? Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify. First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch.
There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then? Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app. This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks.
Liz Orembo
Thanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers.
On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem.
Lastly, why should my bundles expire? Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely. In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line.
George Sidney
Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.
Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further.
Esther Kamande Thanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve. Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities.
Odhiambo Washington I am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-) Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk.
Emmanuel Khisa
resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno
Safaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and section has serious signal drops.
Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots.
I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :-)
Mwendwa Kivuva
Thank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s
1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved?
2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place?
3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds?
4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command?
Mwendwa, I have answered this above.
Vincent Mosoti Thanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; 1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon.
2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator.
We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network.
3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services. We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA.
From: Stephen Chege Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 To: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear all
Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification.
We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise.
Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going!
regards
Steve
From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Grace Githaiga via kictanet Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 To: Stephen Chege Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear Listers
Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised.
@Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion.
We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information.
Once again, all your contributions are valued.
Best regards
Githaiga, Grace Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com<mailto:ggithaiga@hotmail.com> Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke<http://www.kictanet.or.ke>
"Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.
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-- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254733206359 Skype: barrack.otieno PGP ID: 0x2611D86A
Woow! @Steve, I must confess, your responses are both comprehensive and captivating. Was glued from start to finish. Maybe you should work for Gava in your next life..but then again you will become 'Siri'-kali...:-) But that's a story for another day. Thnx again for the transparency. I hope Listers find your responses as useful as I did. Otherwise we are all are free to ask additional questions as we go along. Cant wait for Day2 Responses. walu. From: Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: Stephen Chege <SChege@Safaricom.co.ke> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 7:08 PM Subject: [kictanet] "Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 1 Questions <!-- _filtered #yiv5559556974 {font-family:Courier;} _filtered #yiv5559556974 {font-family:"Cambria Math";} _filtered #yiv5559556974 {font-family:Calibri;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoNormal, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoNormal, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;}#yiv5559556974 a:link, #yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5559556974 a:visited, #yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5559556974 p {margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 pre {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Courier;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraph, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraph, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraph {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpLast {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974EmailStyle18 {font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;color:#1F497D;}#yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974EmailStyle19 {font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;color:#1F497D;}#yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974HTMLPreformattedChar {font-family:Courier;}#yiv5559556974 .yiv5559556974MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;} _filtered #yiv5559556974 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974WordSection1 {}-->Dear all Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses. regards Steve Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues Guideline: Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services )b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G)c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts)d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc) Questions+Comments from Discussions:Barrack Otieno:My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area. Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year. Ali HusseinHow is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016.The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund.The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas.A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions.For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m.Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months.The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC).As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge.In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation. 2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records. Edwin KiamaMy question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service. Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy. We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators. All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing. I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system. Walu JAffordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data.Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data. 2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now. Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy.Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children. Kevin KamonyeHello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. KevinHi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs. Sydney OchiengI'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer. Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can. Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya. There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above.In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000. Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz. Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else. Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service.Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee. What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it.However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer.The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network.This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers. Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya. In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law. Ali HusseinActually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair.Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date. However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources. Grace BomuThank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years.Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here:http://www.safaricom.co.ke/investor-relation/sustainability Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle. Racheal NakitareDear Walu et'alThank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously. How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years. Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? Walu, Bonface, Rachel,The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality.Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts.We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically. Boniface Witaba@Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. 1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level? Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents.Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions.In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously.We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them. 2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country.We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month. Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regardsTimothy OriedoSafaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy. Timothy OriedoThank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers. Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming.While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa. b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya. c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant. d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers?Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify.First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch. There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then?Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app.This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks. Liz OremboThanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers. On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem. Lastly, why should my bundles expire?Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely.In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line. George SidneyHello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further. Esther KamandeThanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve.Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities. Odhiambo WashingtonI am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-)Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk. Emmanuel KhisaSafaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and >resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots. I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :-) Mwendwa KivuvaThank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s 1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? 2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? 3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds?4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? Mwendwa, I have answered this above. Vincent MosotiThanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; 1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon. 2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator. We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network. 3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services.We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA. From: Stephen Chege Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 To: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear all Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification. We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise. Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going! regards Steve From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke]On Behalf Of Grace Githaiga via kictanet Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 To: Stephen Chege Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear Listers Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised. @Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion. We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information. Once again, all your contributions are valued. Best regards Githaiga, GraceCo-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama. Note:All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom’s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy.http://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Terms_and_Conditions/safaricom_e... _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke 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/jwalu%40yahoo.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. 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Good and well thought through responses except bundles expiry... not convincing. If bundles must expire, why not 'convert' them into airtime - you'd still have your revenue assured. Or create an Expired Bundles' Foundation and donate them to a cause of victim's choice. It does feel like theft........ On 14 Feb 2017 19:10, "Stephen Chege via kictanet" < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Dear all
Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses.
regards
Steve
*Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues *
*Guideline:* Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics
a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services )
b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G)
c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts)
d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc)
*Questions+Comments from Discussions:*
*Barrack Otieno:*
*My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area.*
Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year.
*Ali Hussein*
*How is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? *
Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points.
On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016.
The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund.
The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas.
A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions.
For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m.
Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months.
The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC).
As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge.
In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation.
*2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? *
No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records.
*Edwin Kiama*
*My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? *
No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing.
I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system.
*Walu J*
*Affordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? *
Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data.
Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data.
*2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now.*
Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy.
Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children.
*Kevin Kamonye*
*Hello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. Kevin*
Hi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs.
*Sydney Ochieng*
*I'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? *
Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer.
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya.
There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above.
In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000.
Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz.
*Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. *
Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else.
Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service.
Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee.
*What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? *
Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it.
However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer.
The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network.
This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers.
*Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya.*
In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law.
*Ali Hussein*
*Actually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair. *
Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date.
However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources.
*Grace Bomu*
*Thank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years. *
Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/ investor-relation/sustainability
*Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. *
Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle.
*Racheal Nakitare*
*Dear Walu et'al*
*Thank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. *
*Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. *
Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously.
*How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? *
Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years.
*Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? *
Walu, Bonface, Rachel,
The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality.
Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts.
We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. *
In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically.
*Boniface Witaba*
*@Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. *
*1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level?*
Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents.
Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions.
In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously.
We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission.
We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them.
*2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? *
When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country.
We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. *
I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month.
*Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regards*
*Timothy Oriedo*
Safaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy.
*Timothy Oriedo*
*Thank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. *
*Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? *
We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers.
*Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? *
At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market.
Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming.
While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa.
*b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. *
Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya.
*c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? *
We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant.
*d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers? *
Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify.
First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it.
We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment.
Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch.
*There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then? *
Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app.
This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances.
However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks.
*Liz Orembo*
*Thanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? *
Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers.
*On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. *
Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem.
*Lastly, why should my bundles expire?*
Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely.
In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line.
*George Sidney*
*Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.*
Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further.
*Esther Kamande*
*Thanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. *
*Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve. *
Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities.
*Odhiambo Washington*
*I am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-) *
Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk.
*Emmanuel Khisa*
*Safaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and **>resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. *
Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots.
I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :*-)*
*Mwendwa Kivuva*
*Thank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video **https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s>*
*1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? *
*2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? *
*3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds?*
*4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? *
Mwendwa, I have answered this above.
*Vincent Mosoti*
*Thanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; *
*1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. *
We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon.
*2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. *
Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator.
We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network.
*3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. *
Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services.
We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA.
*From:* Stephen Chege *Sent:* Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 *To:* 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear all
Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification.
We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise.
Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going!
regards
Steve
*From:* kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists. kictanet.or.ke <kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke>] *On Behalf Of *Grace Githaiga via kictanet *Sent:* Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 *To:* Stephen Chege *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear Listers
Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised.
@Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion.
We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information.
Once again, all your contributions are valued.
Best regards
Githaiga, Grace
Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke
"Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.
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@Steve, Still absorbing some of your responses. On affordability of data you wrote
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can. Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944).>>>>> It seems ITU has a different way of looking at affordability. They look at the monthly cost of entry level mobile data (500MB) as a percentage of the country's Gross National Income. So whereas the cost in real terms for data in Kenya maybe equal to or less than what is charged in SA, UK or USA, the Kenyan citizen bears a bigger burden in accessing internet - given our lower income levels. Indeed from the Measuring Info Society 2016 report (pg 136)
| | Measuring the Information Society Report | | ITU place the mobile data affordability for Kenya at 136 out the 178 global economies surveyed. Whats your take on this? walu. From: Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: Stephen Chege <SChege@Safaricom.co.ke> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 7:10 PM Subject: [kictanet] "Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 1 Questions <!-- _filtered #yiv5559556974 {font-family:Courier;} _filtered #yiv5559556974 {font-family:"Cambria Math";} _filtered #yiv5559556974 {font-family:Calibri;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoNormal, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoNormal, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;}#yiv5559556974 a:link, #yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5559556974 a:visited, #yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5559556974 p {margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 pre {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Courier;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraph, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraph, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraph {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 p.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, #yiv5559556974 li.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, #yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974MsoListParagraphCxSpLast {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974EmailStyle18 {font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;color:#1F497D;}#yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974EmailStyle19 {font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;color:#1F497D;}#yiv5559556974 span.yiv5559556974HTMLPreformattedChar {font-family:Courier;}#yiv5559556974 .yiv5559556974MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;} _filtered #yiv5559556974 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv5559556974 div.yiv5559556974WordSection1 {}-->Dear all Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses. regards Steve Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues Guideline: Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services )b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G)c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts)d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc) Questions+Comments from Discussions:Barrack Otieno:My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area. Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year. Ali HusseinHow is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016.The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund.The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas.A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions.For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m.Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months.The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC).As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge.In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation. 2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records. Edwin KiamaMy question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service. Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy. We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators. All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing. I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system. Walu JAffordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data.Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data. 2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now. Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy.Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children. Kevin KamonyeHello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. KevinHi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs. Sydney OchiengI'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer. Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can. Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya. There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above.In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000. Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz. Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else. Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service.Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee. What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it.However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer.The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network.This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers. Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya. In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law. Ali HusseinActually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair.Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date. However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources. Grace BomuThank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years.Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here:http://www.safaricom.co.ke/investor-relation/sustainability Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle. Racheal NakitareDear Walu et'alThank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously. How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years. Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? Walu, Bonface, Rachel,The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality.Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts.We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically. Boniface Witaba@Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. 1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level? Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents.Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions.In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously.We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them. 2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country.We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it. The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month. Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regardsTimothy OriedoSafaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy. Timothy OriedoThank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers. Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming.While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa. b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya. c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant. d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers?Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify.First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch. There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then?Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app.This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks. Liz OremboThanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers. On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem. Lastly, why should my bundles expire?Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely.In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line. George SidneyHello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further. Esther KamandeThanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve.Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities. Odhiambo WashingtonI am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-)Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk. Emmanuel KhisaSafaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and >resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots. I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :-) Mwendwa KivuvaThank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s 1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? 2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? 3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds?4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? Mwendwa, I have answered this above. Vincent MosotiThanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; 1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon. 2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator. We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network. 3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services.We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA. From: Stephen Chege Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 To: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear all Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification. We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise. Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going! regards Steve From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke]On Behalf Of Grace Githaiga via kictanet Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 To: Stephen Chege Cc: Grace Githaiga Subject: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom" Dear Listers Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised. @Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion. We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information. Once again, all your contributions are valued. Best regards Githaiga, GraceCo-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama. Note:All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom’s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy.http://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Terms_and_Conditions/safaricom_e... _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke 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/jwalu%40yahoo.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.
An incisive conversation indeed. Targeted questions and candid responses. Unless something has escaped me, it may seem that Safaricom has "nothing to hide" so far. Strikingly, there seems to be no consensus on whether bundles should expire. Whereas I haven't been asked to hold brief for any telco, I would think expiry is inevitable. Bundles are typically delivered as a service that is not detachable from the providers infrastructural apparatus. Thus unlike a product that's purchased and carted away, bundles remain suspended such that the subscriber is able to access them from the provider as often as necessary. A time line must be set upon which this relationship is to be severed. For arguments sake, suppose all clients all subscribed to a 5MB package and used the same sparingly for an infinite period, how would the service be sustained? How would a telco ever account for its data business? I compare the bundles affair to the insurance policy business. Why do insurance stickers expire? The most feasible answer is that the firms are in business and returns must accrue. Safaricom is in business and money minting is their business.They have obligations to their shareholders and other stakeholders who only comprehend the language of profits. Of course, if Steve tried to openly make that confession here he would probably find himself between the rubber and the tarmac. That said, I hope that Safcom will further explore mechanisms of transmitting more benefits to subscribers in the form of price reductions. @Steve: As you prepare to avail feedback on competition questions, kindly address this observation: The management of Airtel has been quoted as attributing their diminished fortunes to the acts/omissions of the regulator and Safaricom: -Has the regulator by any chance shown more affection towards Safaricom than other players? -What word of encouragement do you have for your industry brothers who would like to be Safaricom at adulthood? Advice "roho safi" @Grace, Walu I hope you will at an appropriate time bring on board the other players here for "grilling" Kamotho On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 11:08 AM, Walubengo J via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
@Steve,
Still absorbing some of your responses. On affordability of data you wrote
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944).
It seems ITU has a different way of looking at affordability. They look at the monthly cost of entry level mobile data (500MB) as a percentage of the country's Gross National Income.
So whereas the cost in real terms for data in Kenya maybe equal to or less than what is charged in SA, UK or USA, the Kenyan citizen bears a bigger burden in accessing internet - given our lower income levels.
Indeed from the Measuring Info Society 2016 report (pg 136) <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2016.aspx>
Measuring the Information Society Report <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2016.aspx>
ITU place the mobile data affordability for Kenya at 136 out the 178 global economies surveyed. Whats your take on this?
walu.
------------------------------ *From:* Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *To:* jwalu@yahoo.com *Cc:* Stephen Chege <SChege@Safaricom.co.ke> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 14, 2017 7:10 PM *Subject:* [kictanet] "Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 1 Questions
Dear all
Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses.
regards
Steve
*Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues * *Guideline:* Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics
a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services ) b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G) c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts) d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc)
*Questions+Comments from Discussions:* *Barrack Otieno:*
*My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area.*
Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year.
*Ali Hussein* *How is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? *
Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016. The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund. The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas. A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions. For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m. Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months. The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC). As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge. In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation.
*2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? *
No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records.
*Edwin Kiama*
*My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? *
No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing.
I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system.
*Walu J*
*Affordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? *
Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data. Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data.
*2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now.*
Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy.
Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children.
*Kevin Kamonye*
*Hello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. Kevin*
Hi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs.
*Sydney Ochieng*
*I'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? *
Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer.
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya.
There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above.
In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000.
Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz.
*Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. *
Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else.
Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service.
Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee.
*What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? *
Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it. However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers.
*Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya.*
In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law.
*Ali Hussein* *Actually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair. * Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date.
However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources.
*Grace Bomu* *Thank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years. * Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/ investor-relation/sustainability
*Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. * Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle.
*Racheal Nakitare*
*Dear Walu et'al*
*Thank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. *
*Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. *
Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously.
*How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? *
Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years.
*Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? *
Walu, Bonface, Rachel, The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality. Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. *
In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically.
*Boniface Witaba*
*@Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. *
*1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level?*
Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents. Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions. In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously. We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them.
*2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? *
When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. *
I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month.
*Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regards*
*Timothy Oriedo* Safaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy.
*Timothy Oriedo* *Thank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. *
*Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? * We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers.
*Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? * At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming. While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa.
*b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. * Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya.
*c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? * We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant.
*d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers? * Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify. First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch.
*There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then? * Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app. This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks.
*Liz Orembo*
*Thanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? *
Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers.
*On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. *
Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem.
*Lastly, why should my bundles expire?*
Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely. In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line.
*George Sidney*
*Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.*
Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further.
*Esther Kamande* *Thanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. * *Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve. * Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities.
*Odhiambo Washington* *I am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-) * Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk.
*Emmanuel Khisa*
*Safaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and **>resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. *
Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots.
I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :*-)*
*Mwendwa Kivuva*
*Thank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video **https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s>*
*1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? *
*2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? *
*3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds?*
*4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? *
Mwendwa, I have answered this above.
*Vincent Mosoti* *Thanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; * *1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. * We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon.
*2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. * Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator.
We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network.
*3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. * Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services. We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA.
*From:* Stephen Chege *Sent:* Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 *To:* 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear all
Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification.
We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise.
Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going!
regards
Steve
*From:* kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists. kictanet.or.ke <kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke>] *On Behalf Of *Grace Githaiga via kictanet *Sent:* Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 *To:* Stephen Chege *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear Listers
Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised.
@Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion.
We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information.
Once again, all your contributions are valued.
Best regards
Githaiga, Grace Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke
"Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.
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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.
Very good points Ndugu Kamotho. I enjoyed your command of the queens language. Regards On Feb 15, 2017 2:37 PM, "Kamotho Njenga via kictanet" < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
An incisive conversation indeed. Targeted questions and candid responses. Unless something has escaped me, it may seem that Safaricom has "nothing to hide" so far.
Strikingly, there seems to be no consensus on whether bundles should expire. Whereas I haven't been asked to hold brief for any telco, I would think expiry is inevitable. Bundles are typically delivered as a service that is not detachable from the providers infrastructural apparatus. Thus unlike a product that's purchased and carted away, bundles remain suspended such that the subscriber is able to access them from the provider as often as necessary. A time line must be set upon which this relationship is to be severed.
For arguments sake, suppose all clients all subscribed to a 5MB package and used the same sparingly for an infinite period, how would the service be sustained? How would a telco ever account for its data business? I compare the bundles affair to the insurance policy business. Why do insurance stickers expire? The most feasible answer is that the firms are in business and returns must accrue.
Safaricom is in business and money minting is their business.They have obligations to their shareholders and other stakeholders who only comprehend the language of profits. Of course, if Steve tried to openly make that confession here he would probably find himself between the rubber and the tarmac. That said, I hope that Safcom will further explore mechanisms of transmitting more benefits to subscribers in the form of price reductions.
@Steve: As you prepare to avail feedback on competition questions, kindly address this observation: The management of Airtel has been quoted as attributing their diminished fortunes to the acts/omissions of the regulator and Safaricom:
-Has the regulator by any chance shown more affection towards Safaricom than other players? -What word of encouragement do you have for your industry brothers who would like to be Safaricom at adulthood? Advice "roho safi"
@Grace, Walu I hope you will at an appropriate time bring on board the other players here for "grilling"
Kamotho
On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 11:08 AM, Walubengo J via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
@Steve,
Still absorbing some of your responses. On affordability of data you wrote
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944).
>
It seems ITU has a different way of looking at affordability. They look at the monthly cost of entry level mobile data (500MB) as a percentage of the country's Gross National Income.
So whereas the cost in real terms for data in Kenya maybe equal to or less than what is charged in SA, UK or USA, the Kenyan citizen bears a bigger burden in accessing internet - given our lower income levels.
Indeed from the Measuring Info Society 2016 report (pg 136) <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2016.aspx>
Measuring the Information Society Report <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2016.aspx>
ITU place the mobile data affordability for Kenya at 136 out the 178 global economies surveyed. Whats your take on this?
walu.
------------------------------ *From:* Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *To:* jwalu@yahoo.com *Cc:* Stephen Chege <SChege@Safaricom.co.ke> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 14, 2017 7:10 PM *Subject:* [kictanet] "Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 1 Questions
Dear all
Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses.
regards
Steve
*Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues * *Guideline:* Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics
a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services ) b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G) c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts) d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc)
*Questions+Comments from Discussions:* *Barrack Otieno:*
*My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area.*
Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year.
*Ali Hussein* *How is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? *
Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016. The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund. The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas. A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions. For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m. Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months. The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC). As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge. In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation.
*2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? *
No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records.
*Edwin Kiama*
*My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? *
No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing.
I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system.
*Walu J*
*Affordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? *
Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data. Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data.
*2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now.*
Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy.
Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children.
*Kevin Kamonye*
*Hello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. Kevin*
Hi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs.
*Sydney Ochieng*
*I'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? *
Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer.
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya.
There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above.
In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000.
Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz.
*Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. *
Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else.
Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service.
Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee.
*What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? *
Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it. However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers.
*Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya.*
In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law.
*Ali Hussein* *Actually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair. * Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date.
However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources.
*Grace Bomu* *Thank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years. * Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/inv estor-relation/sustainability
*Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. * Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle.
*Racheal Nakitare*
*Dear Walu et'al*
*Thank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. *
*Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. *
Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously.
*How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? *
Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years.
*Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? *
Walu, Bonface, Rachel, The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality. Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. *
In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically.
*Boniface Witaba*
*@Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. *
*1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level?*
Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents. Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions. In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously. We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them.
*2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? *
When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. *
I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month.
*Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regards*
*Timothy Oriedo* Safaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy.
*Timothy Oriedo* *Thank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. *
*Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? * We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers.
*Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? * At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming. While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa.
*b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. * Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya.
*c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? * We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant.
*d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers? * Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify. First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch.
*There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then? * Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app. This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks.
*Liz Orembo*
*Thanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? *
Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers.
*On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. *
Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem.
*Lastly, why should my bundles expire?*
Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely. In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line.
*George Sidney*
*Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.*
Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further.
*Esther Kamande* *Thanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. * *Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve. * Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities.
*Odhiambo Washington* *I am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-) * Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk.
*Emmanuel Khisa*
*Safaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and **>resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. *
Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots.
I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :*-)*
*Mwendwa Kivuva*
*Thank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video **https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s>*
*1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? *
*2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? *
*3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds?*
*4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? *
Mwendwa, I have answered this above.
*Vincent Mosoti* *Thanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; * *1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. * We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon.
*2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. * Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator.
We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network.
*3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. * Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services. We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA.
*From:* Stephen Chege *Sent:* Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 *To:* 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear all
Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification.
We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise.
Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going!
regards
Steve
*From:* kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+scheg e=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke <kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke>] *On Behalf Of *Grace Githaiga via kictanet *Sent:* Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 *To:* Stephen Chege *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear Listers
Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised.
@Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion.
We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information.
Once again, all your contributions are valued.
Best regards
Githaiga, Grace Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 <0722%20701495> Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke
"Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.
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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.
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Did I miss the part of opening up mpesa to other operators? On 15 Feb 2017 16:19, "Barrack Otieno via kictanet" < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Very good points Ndugu Kamotho. I enjoyed your command of the queens language.
Regards On Feb 15, 2017 2:37 PM, "Kamotho Njenga via kictanet" < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
An incisive conversation indeed. Targeted questions and candid responses. Unless something has escaped me, it may seem that Safaricom has "nothing to hide" so far.
Strikingly, there seems to be no consensus on whether bundles should expire. Whereas I haven't been asked to hold brief for any telco, I would think expiry is inevitable. Bundles are typically delivered as a service that is not detachable from the providers infrastructural apparatus. Thus unlike a product that's purchased and carted away, bundles remain suspended such that the subscriber is able to access them from the provider as often as necessary. A time line must be set upon which this relationship is to be severed.
For arguments sake, suppose all clients all subscribed to a 5MB package and used the same sparingly for an infinite period, how would the service be sustained? How would a telco ever account for its data business? I compare the bundles affair to the insurance policy business. Why do insurance stickers expire? The most feasible answer is that the firms are in business and returns must accrue.
Safaricom is in business and money minting is their business.They have obligations to their shareholders and other stakeholders who only comprehend the language of profits. Of course, if Steve tried to openly make that confession here he would probably find himself between the rubber and the tarmac. That said, I hope that Safcom will further explore mechanisms of transmitting more benefits to subscribers in the form of price reductions.
@Steve: As you prepare to avail feedback on competition questions, kindly address this observation: The management of Airtel has been quoted as attributing their diminished fortunes to the acts/omissions of the regulator and Safaricom:
-Has the regulator by any chance shown more affection towards Safaricom than other players? -What word of encouragement do you have for your industry brothers who would like to be Safaricom at adulthood? Advice "roho safi"
@Grace, Walu I hope you will at an appropriate time bring on board the other players here for "grilling"
Kamotho
On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 11:08 AM, Walubengo J via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
@Steve,
Still absorbing some of your responses. On affordability of data you wrote
>
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944).
>>
It seems ITU has a different way of looking at affordability. They look at the monthly cost of entry level mobile data (500MB) as a percentage of the country's Gross National Income.
So whereas the cost in real terms for data in Kenya maybe equal to or less than what is charged in SA, UK or USA, the Kenyan citizen bears a bigger burden in accessing internet - given our lower income levels.
Indeed from the Measuring Info Society 2016 report (pg 136) <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2016.aspx>
Measuring the Information Society Report <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2016.aspx>
ITU place the mobile data affordability for Kenya at 136 out the 178 global economies surveyed. Whats your take on this?
walu.
------------------------------ *From:* Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *To:* jwalu@yahoo.com *Cc:* Stephen Chege <SChege@Safaricom.co.ke> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 14, 2017 7:10 PM *Subject:* [kictanet] "Talk to Safaricom" Responses to Day 1 Questions
Dear all
Below are the responses to Day 1 Questions. Will try to do a better job with the formatting for the next set of responses.
regards
Steve
*Talk-2-Safaricom, Days 1 (Monday 6th Feb) - Consumer Issues * *Guideline:* Share our experiences and challenges with regard to Safaricom Services along the following topics
a) Affordability (of Bandwidth, Data bundles, SMS, Over The Top Services ) b) Quality of Service(Congestion, Dropped Calls, 2G, 3G, 4G) c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability (Premium Service Providers, Unsolicited sms, KRA & MPESA accounts) d) Privacy Issues-As the largest ISP, how is Safcom handling Censorship threats, Child online Protection from harmful content, Security Cameras, etc)
*Questions+Comments from Discussions:* *Barrack Otieno:*
*My question regards mobile signal coverage of Kisamese and Olepolos areas which are within 50 Kilometres from Nairobi. The quality of the signal is very poor yet there is a growing urban populace. I had raised this issue with Safaricom Customer service and they promised to work on it but it has been a year waiting for some positive feedback. Can our good friends at Safaricom do something about the blind spots and strengthening of 3 G in the area? By extension coverage is very bad and non existent as you move further towards Magadi in particular Oltepesi and Tinga areas. I hope to get some feedback on the plans Safaricom has to boost the signal in this area.*
Hi Barrack. As you mentioned, our technical team has been in touch on this issue and are currently scoping out the options in the area. We aim to improve connectivity in the Kajiado County by adding increase the County coverage footprint from 60% to about 75% of the inhabited area, while increasing network capacity within the urban areas. In the last ten months we have increased our coverage by 18 Base stations with plans ongoing to identify new coverage locations in the next FY 2017/18, to be available by mid-March. The new rollout drive is being done as part of our regionalization program that kicked off last year.
*Ali Hussein* *How is Safaricom leveraging NOFBI and USF to ensure their customers get high internet connectivity in the furthest corners of the country - From Mandela and Wajir to Kilifi and Lamu? *
Yes we do leverage both NOFBI and USF. NOFBI is a backbone Fibre network by the Government of Kenya, available to all network operators. We use it for backhauling from our terminal sites to our main network points. On USF, (and I’m answering both Ali and Mwendwa here), for context, the USF Fund is created under KICA by donations from licensees of the CA. To date, Safaricom has contributed almost half of the approximately Sh4 billion in the Fund as at January 2016. The CA has adopted a methodology that targets the application of the Fund to marginalised and underserved areas by offering incentives (a subsidy from the USF) to operators who are still expected to invest and expend capital expenditure to erect the required infrastructure. In identifying these areas, the CA conducted an Access Gap study, which identified different geographic areas of the country that require intervention under the USF fund. The proposed methodology further targeted the existing operators (and principle contributors to the Fund) to bid for certain geographic Lots, erect base stations and extend network coverage for both voice and data to these underserved areas. A total 105 Lots were on offer. A Lot consists of a geographical region in Kenya, which may require building between 5-6 BTS per Lot. Each operator was given the opportunity to bid for any number of Lots, and in return, the USF would give a subsidy of between 20-80% to the operator for the total construction cost of the required BTS. The operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure and together with the subsidy to meet the full cost of the BTS in these remote regions. For example, if a Lot located in Samburu required 6 BTS to be constructed whose total cost was Sh120m, an operator would be required to undertake capital expenditure of 60m, and the USF would grant a subsidy of 60m. Unfortunately, the subsidy offered for a large number of the Lots was not sufficient to attract investments. Safaricom bid for 28 Lots out of which we were awarded 24 Lots. We are now preparing to rollout in the next two months. The application of the USF is determined by the CA in consultation with the Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC). As the largest contributors to the USF Fund, telecommunication service providers including Safaricom do not have a say as to how the funds are utilised – yet we have the best information as to the constraints that impede rollout of network in marginal areas and the subsidy from the USF facilitates in closing the capital challenge. In fact, telecommunications providers had requested for representation in the USAC and had received promises that this would be done, but unfortunately the council does not have any operator representation.
*2. Does Safaricom get requests from the government regarding customer data? a) Phone numbers b) SMS Messages c) Browsing history? d) add any other And if so does Safaricom feel that they may have an obligation to make these requests public on a quarterly basis? *
No we do not get such requests. Where we do get requests, it is usually in criminal investigations and court proceedings where typically the information sought is call data records.
*Edwin Kiama*
*My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to? *
No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing.
I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system.
*Walu J*
*Affordability. The idea that bundles are cheap e.g 50Ksh or 0.5$ for 150MB per day is misleading. In 30days, this comes to 1,500Ksh or 15$ per month for 4.5GB of data. If I watched an educational movie or downloaded some serious research data or software, this volume of data can disappear in 5minutes. Meaning, 15$ gone in 5 minutes! My conclusion is that data bundles are not cheap - unless you are simply tweeting the whole day. How can Safaricom give Kenyans a better data bundle-price mix that encourages more value adding activities rather than just social-media activities? *
Walu, different customers have different consumption patterns, this is why many operators world over have differently priced data bundles. Some customers would prefer to pay for a larger bundle upfront and enjoy the benefits of deeper discounts, whereas others can only afford to buy smaller bundles and we have to provide those options. This actually addresses affordability as different customers have different purchasing power. What we tend to see over a period of time is that customers gravitate towards the bundles that give them the most value in their circumstances, whether its daily, weekly, or monthly and depending on what use they apply the data. Typically, most data consumers use it for social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Netflix, and so on. As users mature in their usage habits we expect more enterprise, academic and professional use of data.
*2. On Child Online Protection(COP); As the largest 'ISP' in Kenya, what modalities do you have for parents to control and protect kids from adult, terrorist or other harmful content? Do you have something equivalent to DSTV parental control for mobile devices? Ni hayo tu for now.*
Safaricom, as a responsible global citizen recognises that parents need support in keeping their children safe online. We recognise the importance of child online safety as part of our commitment to promote children’s rights, as detailed in the Safaricom’s Children’s Rights Policy.
Needless to say monitoring and protection of children’s online activity is the primary responsibility of parents, guardians and care givers. As an ISP, the most effective way of aiding parents to effect child online safety is through device specific tools. In the past, Safaricom has provided a parental control applications as the Guardian App. This free Android-based App empowers parents to among other things, block specific contacts or numbers form sending unsuitable text messages or calls to their children’s phones, specify times during which the child can use the gadget, as well as restrict outgoing calls to white-listed contacts. In addition to this, Safaricom is currently in discussion with various vendors to offer an array of child friendly mobile phones and tablets and parental control products and solutions. Further, we regularly partner with relevant stakeholders including the CA, the GSMA, and other stakeholders to create public awareness and education on the online safety of children.
*Kevin Kamonye*
*Hello Stephen, My issue is with the data products pricing and durability. I yearn for the peace of only managing one SIM please.. Otherwise, well done overall. Kevin*
Hi Kevin, thanks for this comment, we will contact you offline to discuss your needs.
*Sydney Ochieng*
*I'd like to know what Safaricom is doing to make it affordable for people to come online? While prices have reduced its not enough when half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the same note, why do bundles expire? Other than to make me buy more? *
Sidney, we have received a number of queries on this so I will give you a comprehensive answer.
Over the last 7 years, the price of data on our network has dropped by 80% for example, in 2010, one GB was Sh2,500 versus the current Sh500. Over the last year, we further reduced the price of data on our network by 37%. We keep on reviewing customer needs and react accordingly where we can.
Data in Kenya is relatively more affordable than say South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). These are countries that have significantly more backbone and metro fibre compared to Kenya.
There are a number of factors that make up the cost of a bundle of data. The first most significant one is the expenditure on getting the data to the customer. Over the last 10 years, we have spent billions on securing undersea cable links, building a data capable network and paying for spectrum fees - for example, in December last year we paid $25 million to Communications Authority for the 4G Licence. In a typical commercial setting, these costs necessarily inform the retail pricing strategy. As the costs of connecting customers (so called last-mile) reduce over time, we are able to pass these benefits to customers as explained above.
In addition, we understand that the cost of the device is often a barrier for our customers, this is why we are working with phone manufacturers to reduce the costs of data enabled handsets where we can – you can now buy a 4G handset for less than Sh5,000.
Lastly, expiry of data bundles is line with global practice – I shall go into this in more detail on my follow-up response to Liz.
*Why is M-PESA so expensive compared to other options? When is the M-PESA app coming? The USSD option is so cumbersome. *
Sidney – I believe M-PESA is still affordable when compared to the other options for sending money across the country. Think of the days when we would have to hope and pray that relative we sent by bus with money would make it, or even how much in terms of money and time it can cost to travel to bank branch and send to someone else.
Quite simply, we price our service as it is not sustainable to offer services at no cost – it means you’re either sacrificing on security or you have not invested in some part of the delivery chain. It costs money to maintain and retain the over 124,000 agents we have across the country, as well as to maintain the technology running the service.
Nonetheless we continue to reduce the tariffs on M-PESA proactively. You will note in December, we removed the cost of all transactions under Sh100 as part of our agenda to expand access for customers who typically transact in small amounts. Since then, we have witnessed a 93% increase in average daily transactions. As most payments are under Sh100, customers who pay now access energy and additional services like radio or TV without paying a transaction fee.
*What sort of information do you have on me, as a subscriber? How long is each category of information stored for? What internal processes protect this data and who has access to it, within Safcom? What is the process for outsiders (government, private citizen) to get access to it? *
Sidney, we are required by law to have the following details in our files for every subscriber: Name, ID, Photo and Address (collected as part of your subscriber registration). Access to customer data is highly restricted at Safaricom, and only authorised personnel are allowed to access it. However, our customer care team is able to view data such as top-ups and transactions - but only following a query from a customer. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. This kind of information is also stored as machine form data, meaning no one would be able to access it or decipher it in the normal course of business and is stored in well-secured servers.
*Those cameras you put in all over the city, who has access to them? What's the plan for fiber? Right now I think you're my only hope for fiber in my home in Siaya.*
In 2014, Safaricom signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Kenya that saw it create a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for the National Police Service. This project involved installation of surveillance cameras which are controlled and managed by the National Police Service. The project has now been fully handed over the NPS, who have access to the cameras and who use them to fight crime and maintain the rule of law.
*Ali Hussein* *Actually I honestly don't understand this business of expiration of Bundles.. I mean if I go and fuel at the petrol station and the fuel in my car lasts a month will the fuel expire??? It's my money, it's my bundles. I think CA is sleeping on the job. Telcos need to change this policy. It's very unfair. * Ali let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilise their resources within a set period of time. This is how it is done in may parts of the world. As such these resources, be they data bundles, SMS or minutes are deemed not to be available to a customer after the communicated date.
However, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line with additional resources.
*Grace Bomu* *Thank you so much Steve , Walu et al for the engagement. First of all, I am grateful to Safaricom for being almost everywhere. I was in parts of Kapedo, Baragoi and Mandera last year and it was unbelievable that I could post pictures and read news online from some of those far flung places. It just struck me that Safaricom is a company that intends to stay in Kenya for the next 100 years. * Grace – we certainly hope so. At the moment we are trying build the foundations of a sustainable business by aligning with the SDGs as our business blueprint. See more here: http://www.safaricom.co.ke/inv estor-relation/sustainability
*Realising that the company is an important part of Kenyan life, my question is whether Safaricom has a human rights policy or guidelines for its operations. This is not just in relation to access to customer data, child online protection and privacy but also in other areas such as environment, how/who you contract and compensation for victims of rights abuses. * Grace, this is an interesting question, however I would need more details to frame an appropriate answer especially on the human rights angle.
*Racheal Nakitare*
*Dear Walu et'al*
*Thank you for this brilliant idea. I ran out of bundles last night hence my questions this morning. Following up on Grace Bomu's issue on human rights. *
*Does Safaricom make any effort to let subscribers know and understand their rights. I would expect that I will find the terms and policy guidelines on the home page of the website. *
Across all our customer touch points - be it TV, Radio, Online, Print or at the shop/agent - we are required to ensure that our customers have easy access to the terms and conditions that govern their use of all our services. In line with our drive to be the most transparent operator in the market, we take this requirement very seriously.
*How long is the data collected through our transactions kept? *
Please see my response to Sidney above. The data retention duration depends on the type of information in question and the governing law – for example, subscriber registration information is retained for a period of two years after the subscriber leaves the network. On the other hand, M-PESA transactions data is kept for seven years.
*Does Safaricom respect the rights to privacy of its users? How do you respond to third party requests for user information collected through SIM card registration? *
Walu, Bonface, Rachel, The aspect of data privacy is at the heart of telecommunications services, which is why it is a right protected under the constitution. In addition to this, Safaricom has strict license obligations to maintain customer information confidentiality. Safaricom makes no disclosure of information to third parties except as provided in the law. Specifically, we make disclosure to law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings in Courts. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*I live in Ongata Rongai and can not communicate on safcom while in my house. Yet this is ideally a well networked area. *
In-door coverage is a challenge for all networks but certainly one that can be overcome! Signal propagation in built-up areas can be difficult but it is our job to ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of communication in the comfort of your house which we do by in-filling already covered areas and through optimisation. In large office-blocks we have to deploy dedicated in-door solutions. We can chat offline and our technology team will be in touch with you for details on your location so we can address this issue more specifically.
*Boniface Witaba*
*@Safaricom My concern (though already mentioned by one of the listers) is privacy and data protection. In 2013, a political party in my area colluded with M-PESA agents to phish customer details from M-PESA registers for political purposes. As a result, my details and those of others ended up with the party, and were eventually forwarded to the registrar of political parties. *
*1. What mechanisms have you put in place to protect customers data especially at the agents level?*
Walu, Bonface, you both had questions around confidentiality of customer data at the M-PESA agents. Due to Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation, we are required to capture certain information in order to process M-PESA transactions. In the past, we made a change to our data capture processes at our Agents in order to tighten security around our customer data. So today, the M-PESA Agent will only record your ID number and not the phone number, name and ID as was the case previously. We undertook this step in response to reports of unscrupulous users who would lift this data from the books to sign up customers up for services without their permission. We spend a lot of time working with the CBK to train our M-PESA Agents on the latest developments in Anti-Money Laundering, KYC, Insurance and Security. In doing this, we also place strict regulations on how they handle customer data in their possession through their daily interaction with customers. We also conduct regular, random checks to see how that data is secured to ensure that customer transactions remain confidential to them.
*2. Can you compare notes with your sister company in Tanzania (Vodacom) to borrow some of their best practices in handling customer data? *
When it comes to customer data protection, we actually share best practice with all M-PESA markets including Tanzania, and will ensure that we implement the best in the class operations across the country. We have a zero tolerance approach to the illegal use of our customer data and are willing to take aggressive steps to defend it.
*The other issues is Internet cost. Tanzania has been voted as the #1 country with affordable Internet costs in Africa (again Vodacom takes the lead). With about 150 Kshs, you get 1GB for 24 hours. *
I had responded to Sidney’s question on data in some detail, but let me add Kenya is comparable to markets that are offering data on technologies comparable to what we offer. If we compare using that as a basis, 3G/4G data in Kenya is currently more affordable than South Africa (where 1GB is Sh582), US (where 1GB is Sh1,814) and in the UK (1Gb is Sh1,944). In Tanzania, they charge about Sh420 for 1GB per month.
*Why is it so hard for you to pass such benefits to Kenyans after years of dominance? Kind regards*
*Timothy Oriedo* Safaricom remains the one network in Kenya that keeps investing in the country. Our strength is due to years of dedicated investment in our network, our choice to roll out in rural areas and relentless innovation. For instance, MIT recently released a new study revealing that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day). Benefits such as these have been the driving force behind our Transforming Lives strategy.
*Timothy Oriedo* *Thank you Admin and moderator for taking the initiative on this subject. Before the day breaks allow me to make submissions. *
*Affordability - To what extend is Safaricom deploying dynamic pricing? It might not be evident to consumers but are the call rates relative to the anchor BTS ? Meaning if am in Kawangware i pay a different call rate than when am aroumd Kileleshwa? Will dynamic pricing apply On OTT platforms as well to drive consumption of certain types of content? * We strive to offer all our services in a consistent manner to democratise the value of mobile services to all Kenyans. Moreover, we constantly innovate to package and price our services to suit the individual needs of our diverse customers.
*Roaming service when will safaricom deploy E-Sim and enter strategic partnerships with global players to reduce roaming costs? * At present, Safaricom does not have plans to rollout E-SIM. The eSIM is a relatively new technology even in more advanced markets, we are monitoring its development in order to identify the right solution for our market. Safaricom currently has standing agreements with over 1,000 networks around the world and have been actively campaigning to reduce the cost of roaming. While there have been some successes, we are still pushing for more, especially on the regional front especially in Vodafone partner markets where you can roam for as little as Sh30 in South Africa or in London for Sh15, or as low as Sh30 in East Africa.
*b) Quality of Service - 5G is to roll out in 2020 where are we with 4G? Will we have optimised it? How about white space? When do its benefits trickle down to consumers to bridge the last mile as an affordable alternative and for redundancy checks. * Over the last financial year, we rolled out 1,000 4G masts across major towns in Kenya. However, we still believe there is much more to be done in enhancing access to 3G and indeed, 2G in some areas. We were first to launch 3G and 4G, and we do intend to trial 5G in the short to medium term. Our view is that we shall invest in the latest cutting edged technologies to meet the needs of our customers, however we shall not lose sight of the fact that some of them still require basic - or even improved - connectivity. On white spaces, we are a firm believer in licensed spectrum use as the best model to deliver connectivity to the largest number of Kenyans hence our position as the first company to trial and implement both 3G and now 4G services in Kenya.
*c) Data Protection & Intermediary liability- Has Safaricom started investing in big data analytics tools that can harness metadata so as to cushion data breaches? Have come across studies in an international university I attended of a study done with anonymised call records of 15M safaricom phone subscribers that did predict disease spread patterns from rural to urban areas...there are many more other studies that can be done for social good. Is there a particular department in safaricom that collaborates with scholars for such ground breaking studies ? Are they published and publiced? * We have several big data tools that help us sift information on our network in order to improve the customer experience. We have a dedicated team who conduct big data analysis to explore the opportunities therein, including Mobile for Social Good initiatives such as in the areas of health, disaster management, etc while still ensuring that the necessary data protection safeguards for our customers remain in place. In time we shall publish any findings as relevant.
*d) Privacy Issues - How safe is our transactional data with the planned release of mpesa API to developers? * Good question. This is an issue that has been brought up about Safaricom for some time, which I would want to clarify. First, we do have API platform that enable developers to integrate with M-PESA and customize their offering. Is it the best? No, because we require handholding of the developers, hence we have only managed a few hundred developers and the process is quite clunky. But the good thing is, we know this, and are working to fix it. We have already chosen a platform and vendor to manage the APIs, which will allow developers to go into a developer portal, get access to a sample code and a testing environment. Once they are ready to take their API live, they can go through automated and secure testing of the API. We expect this to be in place in the next few months. We will invite all the necessary users to test it before official launch.
*There are couple phone apps that we install that phish up our phone and sms records....can safaricom play a role in blocking then? * Timothy, at the point of downloading an app, most will ask you whether you accept their terms and conditions. Many times when we do this, we tend to accept terms and conditions that are extremely risky, for example, some ask for access to your phone book, camera, call records, call history, etc. and simply because we want the app we go ahead and download the app. This engagement is entirely between the customer and the app provider. It is therefore difficult for Safaricom or any other operator to secure customers in such circumstances. However, we occasionally run awareness campaigns informing customers of the inherent risks of downloading apps without full knowledge of what they are consenting to and which apps to avoid based on international benchmarks.
*Liz Orembo*
*Thanks Steve, Grace and Walu. Still on privacy and data protection issues, Vodafone has reported that the laws are not clear as to whether it should release reports on government request of citizen data. Can you please explain this? *
Liz, in every country in which Vodafone operates, they are required to abide by laws which compel the company to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities. Those laws are designed to protect national security or to prevent or investigate crime and terrorism. If a Vodafone affiliate refuses to comply, governments can remove their licence to operate, preventing Vodafone from providing services to its customers. Vodafone, therefore, has to balance its duty to respect our customers’ human rights against its legal obligation to assist government agencies and authorities when exercising their legal powers.
*On Mpesa payment, please consider notifying customers when they are about to reach transaction limits (like the below 2mbs bundles notification) Imagine someone being caught in a 'chonga viazi' situation yet they have money in mpesa. *
Sorry if I've misunderstood your question. Liz, if you have a look at your last M-PESA transaction, there's a notification that tells you what your current balance is. In addition, you are free to query your balance at any time if you are unsure about your balance on your M-PESA menu, USSD or by calling our customer care. We hope this addresses your concern as you'd be able to understand when you might be in a chonga viazi situation. If you're in the upper limit, then this shouldn’t be a problem.
*Lastly, why should my bundles expire?*
Liz, this is an interesting one. Again let me explain this from the eyes of Telcos – not necessarily Safaricom. The practice amongst mobile companies all over the world is that resources (airtime, SMS, data bundles) are made available to customers at a certain price and duration. This information is given to the customer before they purchase these resources. As such, the expectation from the mobile company is that the customer is aware that they have to utilize their resources within a set period of time. This is how it's done all over the world. In line with efficient network operations, it is impractical to hold network resources indefinitely. In fact, Safaricom is among the few operators that allow these resources to 'roll over' or be extended once a customer tops up their line.
*George Sidney*
*Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.*
Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further.
*Esther Kamande* *Thanks Walu and team for this. On reporting tools available; my concern is regarding the *reporting procedure*, the current system of going to social media and calling customer care is cumbersome and doesn't provide the anonymity that most users would prefer in such instances. * *Safaricom needs to add *a report option on their *100# menu* that majority of its users know how to operate *to simplify the process of reporting fraud and bullying for anonymity* like facebook. You can also add the "*block button" *while at it to keep away the persistent "bad boys". Most phones don’t have the screening function. Thank you for your indulgence Steve. * Thank you for your question! We continuously explore ways we can improve service delivery. For instance, if you use our Safaricom App, you can report and chat to a customer care representative in real time. In addition, customers should be aware that most smart phones have these functionalities.
*Odhiambo Washington* *I am waiting for the day Safaricom will "listen to me, and invite me for a road trip through Kapiti (we buy and eat mangoes), all the way to Marwa (I abhor that name but don't ask me why), then we can detour to that market at Kibingoti and come back. Purpose - network survey :-) * Washington…be careful what you wish for! I would be happy to arrange for road trip with our engineers – maybe not that particular route though! Let’s talk.
*Emmanuel Khisa*
*Safaricom in the new strategy have decentralised their operations fully to different regions in the country...I would be glad if the staff posted in these regions focussed on improving quality of service across the country...An example is the Western Kenya office in Kisumu should try and **>resolve quality issues between Kisumu and Busia...e.g Ojolla to Maseno section has serious signal drops. *
Emmanuel, this is exactly why we set up the Regional organization structure – our representative for the region will be in touch with you identify your problem spots.
I second that, Emmanuel. Can Safaricom tell us when they expect to have the BS at Chulaimbo? I tried pushing for this for years till I gave up. They can put it kwetu Nyumbani :*-)*
*Mwendwa Kivuva*
*Thank you all who have raised issues of access to marginalized areas. The Chair of The Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC), Catherine Ngahu, when she appeared before senate sought to answer some questions on USF and the role of Operators. She said they have 2.3 billion that operators have refused to bid to covers some areas using those funds. "In the bidding we have faced challenges where some areas we are willing to provide funding the operators are unwilling even for pay to proceed. They have bid less areas than we intended" - Catherine Ngahu, Chair USAC. Evidence: at the 49th minute mark of this video **https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerhfH8xD3c&t=2904s>*
*1. Has Safaricom been able to utilise the USF in providing access to the underserved? *
*2. Has Safaricom requested for the USF in the first place? *
*3. If yes, where have they utilised the funds?*
*4. Does Safaricom have any need of using the USF given the amount of capital they command? *
Mwendwa, I have answered this above.
*Vincent Mosoti* *Thanks Walu et al for facilitating this. I have 3 questions here; * *1) What's Safaricom's commitment to fight fraud directed to its users? For example, attached here is a screenshot of an SMS i received purportedly from KCB advertising some form of loans. While safaricom/kcb/equity advises consumers to be vigilant, can't you deploy technologies that prevent/filter such spam/fraud messages getting through the network to intended users. Most of these SMSes have a common pattern and IMHO, i believe Safaricom have capabilities of deploying sophisticated technologies like machine learning to filter out/ prevent them from reaching to the intended persons. * We have noted these incidents and are continually collecting the information alongside our partners to track down and deal with the perpetrators in real time. We advise our customers to forward any such messages to 333 for our teams to investigate and act upon.
*2) Why are unregistered SIM cards allowed to use Safaricom network. Most frauds and crimes committed are likely to use unregistered sims to conceal their identities. * Vincent, we are curious to establish how you determined that the SIM cards were unregistered considering the information is only available to the network operator and to the Regulator.
We do not allow unregistered SIMs to operate in our network. In order for any customer to use services on our network, they must be registered as such there are no unregistered SIM cards on the Safaricom network.
*3) Any plans lowering MPESA rates? Honestly why charge a transaction twice. I feel withdrawing money should be free, because the phrase 'utume mpaka ya kutoa' always results you incurring more sending costs that initially anticipated. * Vincent, the ‘utume mpaka ya kutoa’ phrase is a culture that has risen outside of our influence or control. Ideally, each user should bear their own transaction costs for these services. We have continuously reviewed M-PESA charges over the last 10 years. The charges are structured to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem, which not only includes our customers, but more than 124,000 agents who play a critical role in making access to M-PESA convenient for our customers. We believe that the our charges are competitive and as mentioned we have waived transaction charges for transaction below Kshs. 100 to ensure that everyone is able to use M-PESA.
*From:* Stephen Chege *Sent:* Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:03 *To:* 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* RE: [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear all
Let me start by thanking Walu and Grace again for the opportunity and the moderation effort throughout last week. We have received all your questions and will be sending out the responses to questions from Day 1 later today. I will respond to each of the questioners and do my best with those that were more statements/opinions than questions. I realise that this group is well represented by all actors in the ICT and if I refer to your institution in any way that you are not comfortable with, you are welcome to clarify your position. Please feel free to send supplementary questions in case you deem that the offered response needs clarification.
We shall also share a single document containing all the questions and our answers with Walu to assist with reporting after this exercise. My hope is that we can go into more detail on some of the broader themes during the planned evening cocktail, details of which Walu and Grace will advise.
Otherwise thanks again and let’s keep the conversations going!
regards
Steve
*From:* kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+scheg e=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke <kictanet-bounces+schege=safaricom.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke>] *On Behalf Of *Grace Githaiga via kictanet *Sent:* Monday, February 13, 2017 13:37 *To:* Stephen Chege *Cc:* Grace Githaiga *Subject:* [kictanet] Handing over to Safaricom: "Talk to Safaricom"
Dear Listers
Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the one week moderated debate 'Talk to Safaricom'. Your dedication is highly appreciated. The questions when responded to by Safcom, will indeed shed light on many of the concerns raised.
@Walu, asante sana for your moderation skills and all the hours you put into the discussion.
We now hand over to Steve Chege, Director, Corporate Affairs at Safaricom to guide us on the next steps and the time frame within which we will get responses. We welcome Safaricom's willingness to engage with the community and ultimately provide us with the very needed information.
Once again, all your contributions are valued.
Best regards
Githaiga, Grace Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 <0722%20701495> Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga@hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke
"Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.
------------------------------ *Note:* All emails sent from Safaricom Limited are subject to Safaricom’s Email Terms & Conditions. Please click here to read the policy. http://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Terms_and_Condit ions/safaricom_email_terms_and_conditions.pdf
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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.
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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.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
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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.
On 14 February 2017 at 20:08, Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
George Sidney
Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at the end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.
Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further.
Hi Steve, Thanks for the concise answers to most of the issues. As you have indicated to Sidney, actually this is not a specific customer query. Sidney may be using the "Karibu" Postpay, where the postpay units expire at say Ksh2000 per month, wether you use the service or not. I would also like to hear your response on that. Regards ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya twitter.com/lordmwesh
Still wondering if there will ever be an Mpesa app On 15 February 2017 at 19:53, Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
George Sidney
Hello, I've been on postpaid since 2013, all that time, I have been receiving 100 Mbs per month, we are now in 2017, is there a way Safaricom can add the amount of bundles it gives to its postpaid customers? 100 Mbs cannot even last one day and to make it worse it, there is no way one can sambaza bundles to a postpaid number. Since I rarely exhaust the voice bundles given to me, maybe there should be a plan to choose which bundles to receive more than the other. Lastly, to those unused voice bundles at
On 14 February 2017 at 20:08, Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: the
end of every month, instead of just wiping them out, and you don't carry them forward like you used to anymore, why don't you convert them to Bonga points instead. Cheers.
Sidney, this appears to be a specific customer query. We are getting in touch with you to clarify this issue further.
Hi Steve, Thanks for the concise answers to most of the issues.
As you have indicated to Sidney, actually this is not a specific customer query. Sidney may be using the "Karibu" Postpay, where the postpay units expire at say Ksh2000 per month, wether you use the service or not. I would also like to hear your response on that.
Regards ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya twitter.com/lordmwesh
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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.
-- Regards, Sidney *Twitter:* @princelySid <https://twitter.com/princelySid> | *Website: * sidneyochieng.co.ke
On 14 February 2017 at 20:08, Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Edwin Kiama
My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to?
No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
Thanks you Steve for bringing this up. Under which law will CA be implementing a monitoring system on Operators' platforms? As far as my little legal knowledge stretches, any intent to access citizen's private data can only be accompanied by a court order (court of competent jurisdiction they say), and the access cannot be in perpetuity. It can only be for a specific finite task, mostly investigation. I hope CA can also respond to this. Walu and Grace can follow up with questions that spin out to other actors.
All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing.
Pleas keep the community informed on the outcome.
I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system.
Thanks for that assurance Steve.This is one of the issues this forum feels strongly about. Rest assured any measures outside the law will be met with equal and opposite force. I'm glad the courts have been very instrumental in clawing back constitutional safeguards the executive have tried to deny the people. Regards ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya twitter.com/lordmwesh
Edwin Kiama
QUESTION: My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS
mirrors all
telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to?
ANSWER: No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
So, in simple terms,* "**They know you spoke with an HIV testing service, then your doctor, then your health insurance company in the same hour. But they don’t really know what was discussed"* Or better yet "*They know you rang a phone sex service at 2:24 am and spoke for 18 minutes. But they don’t know what you talked about."* I'm sorry if I come out lewd but I am just trying to make a point here. As long you know whom I called, when, and for how long then it is not really privacy, you might as well just listen to that conversation. So what Safaricom doesn't know is the handset I am using, or do they? Cheers. On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 10:23 PM, Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
On 14 February 2017 at 20:08, Stephen Chege via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Edwin Kiama
My question is on privacy. Rumour has it that GoK through NIS mirrors all telecom networks. Are copies of my Smses on the Safaricom Network also delivered to the government? Are my calls listened to?
No. As you correctly pointed out, this is a rumour. We have no visibility of call or SMS content nor do we keep copies of the same. Operators act as a conduit for transmission of the communication, therefore we only have a log for purposes of billing for the service.
Such logs will contain information such as the duration of the call, date and time stamp of the message, the sender /recipient numbers and amount charged. Under the terms of our licence and laws such as KICA, we are required to keep customer information confidential. This standard is raised to the higher level by our Constitution, which ensures customers have the right to privacy.
We are aware that the Communications Authority has stated that they intend to implement a monitoring system whose objectives include getting access to customer information. I wish to point out that this request has only been made in recent weeks by the CA to the operators.
Thanks you Steve for bringing this up. Under which law will CA be implementing a monitoring system on Operators' platforms? As far as my little legal knowledge stretches, any intent to access citizen's private data can only be accompanied by a court order (court of competent jurisdiction they say), and the access cannot be in perpetuity. It can only be for a specific finite task, mostly investigation. I hope CA can also respond to this.
Walu and Grace can follow up with questions that spin out to other actors.
All operators (and here I believe I speak for the industry, but I stand to be corrected) are not in favour of any third-party system that would have access to confidential customer information. We have registered our strong reservations with the CA and discussions on this matter are ongoing.
Pleas keep the community informed on the outcome.
I think this is a matter that this forum should take a keen interest in and one that should be subjected to robust discussion as it touches directly on issues of data privacy, confidentiality and access to private information before operators are forced to implement the system.
Thanks for that assurance Steve.This is one of the issues this forum feels strongly about. Rest assured any measures outside the law will be met with equal and opposite force. I'm glad the courts have been very instrumental in clawing back constitutional safeguards the executive have tried to deny the people.
Regards ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya twitter.com/lordmwesh
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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.
-- George Sidney Ralak UI/UX Designer Tell: +254716909815 Skype: Sidralak
participants (9)
-
Barrack Otieno -
george sidney ralak -
Job Muriuki -
K Machuhi -
Kamotho Njenga -
Mwendwa Kivuva -
Sidney Ochieng -
Stephen Chege -
Walubengo J