Listers, Ali. It is a fact that  "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote  "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!  Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/kariuki_jn%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.

@Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-) Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example).  And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).   I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?)  Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or  that  all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past. I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.  Is dominance  a good thing? Yes, for Safcom.  Is it a bad thing?  Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.  I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security.  If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares  included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives. That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.   Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give  Safcom the challenge it deserves. walu. On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: John Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying.. I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.  Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)  Ali Hussein +254 0713 601113  Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: Listers, Ali. It is a fact that  "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote  "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!  Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/kariuki_jn%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. <Untitled> _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40campusciti.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. _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke 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.

@Ali Whereas I agree that market driven equilibrium is the ideal, markets at times suffer imperfections. This is where a regulator comes to affirm some intermediate intervention. We as techo experts for a fact are not experts in this. Economist must come in to evaluate options and outcomes and not a knee jack reaction. The objective of dominance correction intervention is to ensure an upstanding (read up walking) sector. See it like someone with two legs if one leg sucks out over 50% strength disequilibrium occurs and walking is by limping or artificial support. That's how collectively all the competitors of Safaricom are - limping and on stilts. The regulator is obligated to act and no excuse. The question is how and not whether. Rgds Dr Kamau ICT entrepreneurship expert On Mon, 30 Jul 2018, 20:13 Ali Hussein via kictanet, < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

@Walu

I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL !

Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and the allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book *Platform Revolution <https://www.amazon.com/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Transforming-Economyand-ebook/dp/B00ZAT8VS4>* by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.

According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks <http://jonathanclarks.blogspot.de/2009/06/what-is-difference-between-platform-and.html>, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.”

So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi <https://www.google.com/search?q=VW+KOMBI&rlz=1C5CHFA_enKE800KE800&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=oebAUZqbFmXsSM%252Ch9Cx7Tj_4hnt2M%252C_&usg=__V7SZyrLUT-w4mOWCnPSbExol-8A%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjf2O6docfcAhXCxoUKHZuTCXIQ_h0wFXoECAoQCA&biw=1280&bih=726#imgrc=oebAUZqbFmXsSM:>is a Toyota VX <https://www.toyota.com/landcruiser/> just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..

Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point.

We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood s ..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure

I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:-

Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dominance-regulation-new-strategic-imperatives-ali-hussein-kassim/>

Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries.

We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein* *Principal* *AHK & Associates* +254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)

Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example). And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).

I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?) Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or that all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.

I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.

Is dominance a good thing? Yes, for Safcom. Is it a bad thing? Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.

I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security. If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.

That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.

Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give Safcom the challenge it deserves.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

John

Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..

I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.

Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)

*Ali Hussein*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Listers, Ali. It is a fact that "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature>

On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke

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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.

<Untitled>

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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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke

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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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke

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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.

@GB Good points you raise. I doubt the Innovation Team at Safaricom is sleeping on the job. Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates +254 0713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle Sent from my iPad

On 31 Jul 2018, at 11:13 AM, Grace Bomu via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Ali, The important point would be to know what happens after declaration of dominance. Would Safaricom business decisions be subject to scrutiny? How much further can they integrate business lines? What parts of their business would have to be open to competitors beyond what has already been opened?

As we are debating, I am certain that Safaricom is already investing in research for future products/services. Soon we'll be debating platform neutrality in the same way others speak of net neutrality...

Il martedì 31 luglio 2018, WANGARI KABIRU via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> ha scritto:

...

https://www.wired.com/2017/05/microsoft-right-need-digital-geneva-convention...

We have shared this piece here before. Until that day when the citizen becomes the focus. Business - Citizenry - Government.

We need to move the nation as a WHOLE from food and some grains of food for others on the plate to nutritious meals --- digitally.

This raises the spotlight on the role of the Consumer Organisations. Whose side are they on? While citizens locally may not imagine they have the integrity or relationship to be a demand of them as they hardly engage, perhaps dominated or not switched or not having adequate lobby space and budgets, however as long as they exist, they have a mandate. An empowered consumer is power to sort out the others such that the other players (business and government) become enablers and not the focus. It also calls for a long-term outlook. I see their role becoming stronger.

"...Of Microsoft's three proposals to foster international collaboration, its Tech Accord may resonate best with the public. Trust will be critical for convincing citizens that new accords protect them...."

Microsoft Is Right: We Need a Digital Geneva Convention | WIRED

"... As a professor of history, I've spent years looking at these types of agreements, including reams of documents on esoteric fights over now-redundant technologies. Without boring WIRED readers with the minutiae, let me suggest two important lessons from the details of the past. First, governments have only ever agreed successfully to technical standards, not to standards regulating content. Second, voluntary agreements by communications technology companies have been vital for protecting citizens...."

On Jul 30, 2018 20:46, Ali Hussein via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: Geoffrey

We are in agreement that Regulator needs to act. How is the issue. Dominance. I don't buy that story. We can agree to disagree.. :-)

Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates

Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya.

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.

On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 8:39 PM, Geoffrey Gitau via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: @Ali Whereas I agree that market driven equilibrium is the ideal, markets at times suffer imperfections. This is where a regulator comes to affirm some intermediate intervention. We as techo experts for a fact are not experts in this. Economist must come in to evaluate options and outcomes and not a knee jack reaction. The objective of dominance correction intervention is to ensure an upstanding (read up walking) sector. See it like someone with two legs if one leg sucks out over 50% strength disequilibrium occurs and walking is by limping or artificial support. That's how collectively all the competitors of Safaricom are - limping and on stilts. The regulator is obligated to act and no excuse. The question is how and not whether.

Rgds

Dr Kamau ICT entrepreneurship expert

On Mon, 30 Jul 2018, 20:13 Ali Hussein via kictanet, <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: @Walu

I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL!

Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and the allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.

According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.”

So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi is a Toyota VX just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..

Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point.

We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood s..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure

I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:-

Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives

Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries.

We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-)

Regards

Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates +254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)

Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example). And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).

I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?) Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or that all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.

I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.

Is dominance a good thing? Yes, for Safcom. Is it a bad thing? Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.

I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security. If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.

That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.

Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give Safcom the challenge it deserves.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

John

Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..

I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.

Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)

Ali Hussein

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Listers, Ali. It is a fact that "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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@Ali, I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared below, which states:  Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory space, J. Bauer, (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c72/106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656cc7a5d7.p...) He defines a platform  as follows: “technological foundations upon which other products, services,and systems are built”  MPESA has provided  the foundation and APIs upon which banking, eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built.  It is a platform, irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such.  Even FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but organically grew into being platforms. Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are actually now Platforms.   Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities. But it is an interesting and wide topic.  Maybe Safcom should sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated. walu.    On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote: @Walu I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL! Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and the allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.  According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.” So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi is a Toyota VX  just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..  Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point. We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood s..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:- Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives  Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries. We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-) Regards Ali HusseinPrincipalAHK & Associates+254 0713 601113  Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: @Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-) Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example).  And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).   I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?)  Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or  that  all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past. I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.  Is dominance  a good thing? Yes, for Safcom.  Is it a bad thing?  Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.  I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security.  If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares  included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives. That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.   Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give  Safcom the challenge it deserves. walu. On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: John Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying.. I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.  Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)  Ali Hussein +254 0713 601113  Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: Listers, Ali. It is a fact that  "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote  "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!  Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/ kariuki_jn%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. <Untitled> ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/info% 40campusciti.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. ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke 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.

No contradiction. Just my defense emphasised the Platform aspects of MPESA. Yours emphasise the Product apsects of MPESA.  We r both right. But Safcom is more right coz they know when and where to play the product card as opposed to the platform card:-) walu Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 10:36 a.m., Ali Hussein<ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote: @Walu Your statement below sort of negates all that you have said, nah? :-) Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities. We can continue this conversation further over a biryani lunch.. (And Steve Chege is welcome to join us) :-) Regards AliHussein Principal AHK & Associates   Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with. On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: @Ali, I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared below, which states:  Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory space, J. Bauer, (https://pdfs.semanticscholar. org/2c72/ 106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656c c7a5d7.pdf) He defines a platform  as follows: “technological foundations upon which other products, services,and systems are built”  MPESA has provided  the foundation and APIs upon which banking, eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built.  It is a platform, irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such.  Even FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but organically grew into being platforms. Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are actually now Platforms.   Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities. But it is an interesting and wide topic.  Maybe Safcom should sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated. walu.    On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote: @Walu I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL! Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and the allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book Platform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.  According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.” So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi is a Toyota VX  just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..  Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point. We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood s..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:- Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives  Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries. We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-) Regards Ali HusseinPrincipalAHK & Associates+254 0713 601113  Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: @Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-) Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example).  And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).   I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?)  Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or  that  all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past. I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.  Is dominance  a good thing? Yes, for Safcom.  Is it a bad thing?  Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.  I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security.  If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares  included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives. That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.   Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give  Safcom the challenge it deserves. walu. On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: John Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying.. I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.  Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)  Ali Hussein +254 0713 601113  Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: Listers, Ali. It is a fact that  "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote  "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!  Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/ kariuki_jn%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. <Untitled> ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/info% 40campusciti.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. ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke 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.

@Andrew, Very true. Do not punish the dominant player, as long as they are NOT abusing their dominance. Agreed. Imagine this country where the dominant player is NOT guilty of abusing the dominance. He is innocently working hard, plays clean, innovates regularly and thus retains dominance year in year out - without  hurting anyone. How will that address the fact that when that innocent dominant player sneezes, 1) 67 % of mobile subscribers will not make a voice call.2) close to 70% of Kenyans will not connect on the internet.3) 81% of mobile money subscribers will not transact (basically the economy can come to a halt)(Ref Q3 2017/18 CA Report @ http://www.ca.go.ke/images/downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Report... Listers, this debate should never be about Safaricom per se, nor its competition.  It is about what options Kenya as a nation has, in the unlikely event  that Safaricom goes down - which we must admit is rare, but we still must plan for such events. One option is to work extra hard to ensure that Safcom never goes down.  The other option is to ensure that if it does, the Statistics above are contained within a 'manageable size' of the market.  My take is that we should try and  do both. If the above principle is agreed. The rest, as they say will be details. walu. On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, 12:45:44 PM GMT+3, Andrew Alston via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: I have another take on this – in terms of dominance and monopolies   Firstly – let me start by saying that I don’t have a problem with what I would call de-facto monopolies – that being, a monopoly that is a monopoly purely by virtue of being the primary (or only significant) player in the space – and I’m far from convinced that declaring such a player dominant and then trying to deliberately degrade their dominance is the way to go.   That being said – which such dominant players and potentially monopolies may exist – the key to dealing with them is to ensure that the regulatory environment exists to allow for the emergence of competition.  Basically – if a player is either dominant or a monopoly – it must be constrained from behaving in a manner that would supress the emergence of true competition that is created by the free market (I.E I believe that there should be strict limitations on anti-competitive practices that should be strongly and vigorously enforced).  This however is different from saying, a player is dominant or a monopoly, and hence we must split them up or force them into actions which actively CREATE the competition – they are very different things.   A classic example of this is the situation we find ourselves in with AFRINIC – They are a de-facto monopoly on the continent being the only RIR – and this would not be a problem if they a.) allowed their customers to transfer out to another RIR off continent or b.) the ICP-2 regulations allowed for the foundation of a second RIR – since (b) isn’t there, and since AFRINIC point blank refuses to implement (a) using the excuse that “the community hasn’t passed such” – I would argue they are behaving in a manner that is anti-competitive and should be subject to sanction under anti-trust regulations. However – in the same vein – I would not advocate that AFRINIC be forced to create a competitor – they are free to keep their monopoly on continent so long as they allow their customers to up and go elsewhere should they choose to do so.   The same thing applies to any dominant player – ensure they are not using that dominance to supress competition and remove the ability for competition to rise – and I have no problem with it.  However, allowing them to remain dominant while adopting anti-competitive practices – that is another story all together.   So the question we need to ask ourselves is – are we seeing anti-competitive practices and practices designed to enforce dominance – if yes – we have a problem – if no – let the free market take care of the issue.   Just my thought   Andrew         From: kictanet <kictanet-bounces+andrew.alston=liquidtelecom.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke>On Behalf Of Ali Hussein via kictanet Sent: 31 July 2018 10:37 To: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston@liquidtelecom.com> Cc: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>; Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Telcos CEOs on the spot in push to declare Safaricom dominant   @Walu   Your statement below sort of negates all that you have said, nah? :-)   Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.   We can continue this conversation further over a biryani lunch.. (And Steve Chege is welcome to join us) :-)   Regards Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates   Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn:http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim   13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.   On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: @Ali,   I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared below, which states:    Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework.   I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory space, J. Bauer, (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c72/106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656cc7a5d7.p...)   He defines a platform  as follows:   “technological foundations upon which other products, services,and systems are built”    MPESA has provided  the foundation and APIs upon which banking, eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built.  It is a platform, irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such.  Even FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but organically grew into being platforms.   Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are actually now Platforms.     Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.   But it is an interesting and wide topic.  Maybe Safcom should sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated.   walu.            On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:     @Walu   I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL !   Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and the allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the bookPlatform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.    According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.”   So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi is a Toyota VX  just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..      Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point.   We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood s ..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure   I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:-     Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives    Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries.     We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-)   Regards   Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates +254 0713 601113    Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim   "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle     Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: @Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)   Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example).  And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).     I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?)  Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or  that  all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.   I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.    Is dominance  a good thing? Yes, for Safcom.  Is it a bad thing?  Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.    I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security.  If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares  included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.   That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.     Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give  Safcom the challenge it deserves.   walu.   On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:     John   Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..   I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.    Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)  Ali Hussein   +254 0713 601113    Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com   "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi   Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: Listers, Ali.  It is a fact that  "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote  "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!    Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android   On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/ kariuki_jn%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. <Untitled> ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options athttps://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/info% 40campusciti.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. ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke 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.   _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke 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.

Aren't there other areas where Safaricom didn't have an advantage? e.g. FTTH, Enterprise Connectivity etc? Why the fixation on voice/payments? On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 9:31 PM, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Let me just place the relevant provisions of the Competition Act (No. 16 of 2014) on the table:

In Kenya, being dominant is not illegal. It is the abuse of the dominant position which is regulated as per the provisions below. The Act deals with dominance in two forms i.e. in terms of market share or market power. There is a presumption of dominance once an undertaking controls 50% of the market (s.23), or if its share is below 40%, where the entity has market power. Market power is defined as the power of a firm to control prices, to exclude competition or to behave to an appreciable extent, independently of its competitors, customers or suppliers.

23. Criteria for determining dominant position (1) For purposes of this section, “dominant undertaking” means an undertaking which— (a) produces, supplies, distributes or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the total goods of any description which are produced, supplied or distributed in Kenya or any substantial part thereof; or (b) provides or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the services which are rendered in Kenya or any substantial part thereof. (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), an undertaking shall also be deemed to be dominant for the purposes of this Act where the undertaking— (a) though not dominant, controls at least forty per cent but not more than fifty per cent of the market share unless it can show that it does not have market power; or (b) controls less than forty per cent of the market share but has market power.

The Act proceeds to define some of the instances where abuse can be seen to have occurred under s.24 below. The list is not exhaustive.

24. Abuse of dominant position and buyer power (1) Any conduct which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in a market in Kenya, or a substantial part of Kenya, is prohibited. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), abuse of a dominant position includes— (a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions; (b) limiting or restricting production, market outlets or market access, investment, distribution, technical development or technological progress through predatory or other practices; (c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties; (d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by other parties of supplementary conditions which by their nature or according to commercial usage have no connection with the subject-matter of the contracts; and (e) abuse of an intellectual property right.

It will be interesting to see how this law develops to clarify these questions especially in the ICT sector. It must be noted though, that there are undertakings that continue to engage in restrictive trade practices within the sector. I think discussions on dominance should focus on abuse and restrictive trade practices, regardless of the entity in the sector. Being dominant is no offence. Sometimes small players in order to gain market share engage in restrictive trade practices.

The CAK is developing a number of regulations to clarify provisions and provide for relevant procedures under the Act. Once these are done, there should be greater clarity in the sector. It will over time need to develop the competence, courage and muscle in the scale of the EU Competition Commissioner, who recently slapped Google and Qualcomm with EUR 2.42 billion and EUR 997 million fines respectively for abusing their dominance.

*Victor Kapiyo* Partner | *Lawmark Partners LLP* *Suite No. 8, Centro House, Westlands, Nairobi | **Web: www.lawmark.co.ke <http://www.lawmark.co.ke> * ====================================================

*“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” Zig Ziglar*

On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 19:59, Walubengo J via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

@Andrew,

Very true. Do not punish the dominant player, as long as they are NOT abusing their dominance. Agreed.

Imagine this country where the dominant player is NOT guilty of abusing the dominance. He is innocently working hard, plays clean, innovates regularly and thus retains dominance year in year out - without hurting anyone.

How will that address the fact that when that innocent dominant player sneezes,

1) 67 % of mobile subscribers will not make a voice call. 2) close to 70% of Kenyans will not connect on the internet. 3) 81% of mobile money subscribers will not transact (basically the economy can come to a halt) (Ref Q3 2017/18 CA Report @ http://www.ca.go.ke/images/ downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Report%20Q3%202017-18%20.pdf

Listers, this debate should never be about Safaricom per se, nor its competition. It is about what options Kenya as a nation has, in the unlikely event that Safaricom goes down - which we must admit is rare, but we still must plan for such events.

One option is to work extra hard to ensure that Safcom never goes down. The other option is to ensure that if it does, the Statistics above are contained within a 'manageable size' of the market. My take is that we should try and do both.

If the above principle is agreed. The rest, as they say will be details.

walu.

On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, 12:45:44 PM GMT+3, Andrew Alston via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

I have another take on this – in terms of dominance and monopolies

Firstly – let me start by saying that I don’t have a problem with what I would call de-facto monopolies – that being, a monopoly that is a monopoly purely by virtue of being the primary (or only significant) player in the space – and I’m far from convinced that declaring such a player dominant and then trying to deliberately degrade their dominance is the way to go.

That being said – which such dominant players and potentially monopolies may exist – the key to dealing with them is to ensure that the regulatory environment exists to allow for the emergence of competition. Basically – if a player is either dominant or a monopoly – it must be constrained from behaving in a manner that would supress the emergence of true competition that is created by the free market (I.E I believe that there should be strict limitations on anti-competitive practices that should be strongly and vigorously enforced). This however is different from saying, a player is dominant or a monopoly, and hence we must split them up or force them into actions which actively CREATE the competition – they are very different things.

A classic example of this is the situation we find ourselves in with AFRINIC – They are a de-facto monopoly on the continent being the only RIR – and this would not be a problem if they a.) allowed their customers to transfer out to another RIR off continent or b.) the ICP-2 regulations allowed for the foundation of a second RIR – since (b) isn’t there, and since AFRINIC point blank refuses to implement (a) using the excuse that “the community hasn’t passed such” – I would argue they are behaving in a manner that is anti-competitive and should be subject to sanction under anti-trust regulations.

However – in the same vein – I would not advocate that AFRINIC be forced to create a competitor – they are free to keep their monopoly on continent so long as they allow their customers to up and go elsewhere should they choose to do so.

The same thing applies to any dominant player – ensure they are not using that dominance to supress competition and remove the ability for competition to rise – and I have no problem with it. However, allowing them to remain dominant while adopting anti-competitive practices – that is another story all together.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is – are we seeing anti-competitive practices and practices designed to enforce dominance – if yes – we have a problem – if no – let the free market take care of the issue.

Just my thought

Andrew

*From:* kictanet <kictanet-bounces+andrew.alston=liquidtelecom.com@ lists.kictanet.or.ke> *On Behalf Of *Ali Hussein via kictanet *Sent:* 31 July 2018 10:37 *To:* Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston@liquidtelecom.com> *Cc:* Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>; Admin CampusCiti via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Telcos CEOs on the spot in push to declare Safaricom dominant

@Walu

Your statement below sort of negates all that you have said, nah? :-)

*Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.*

We can continue this conversation further over a biryani lunch.. (And Steve Chege is welcome to join us) :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.

On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali,

I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared below, which states:

Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework.

I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory space, J. Bauer, (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c72/ 106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656cc7a5d7.pdf)

He defines a platform as follows:

“technological foundations upon which other products, services,and systems are built”

MPESA has provided the foundation and APIs upon which banking, eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built. It is a platform, irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such. Even FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but organically grew into being platforms.

Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are actually now Platforms.

Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.

But it is an interesting and wide topic. Maybe Safcom should sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein < ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:

@Walu

I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL

!

Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and

the

allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book *Platform Revolution <https://www.amazon.com/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Transforming-Economyand-ebook/dp/B00ZAT8VS4>* by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.

According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks <http://jonathanclarks.blogspot.de/2009/06/what-is-difference-between-platform-and.html>, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.”

So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi <https://www.google.com/search?q=VW+KOMBI&rlz=1C5CHFA_enKE800KE800&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=oebAUZqbFmXsSM%252Ch9Cx7Tj_4hnt2M%252C_&usg=__V7SZyrLUT-w4mOWCnPSbExol-8A%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjf2O6docfcAhXCxoUKHZuTCXIQ_h0wFXoECAoQCA&biw=1280&bih=726#imgrc=oebAUZqbFmXsSM>is a Toyota VX <https://www.toyota.com/landcruiser/> just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..

Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point.

We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood

s

..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up

but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure

I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:-

Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dominance-regulation-new-strategic-imperatives-ali-hussein-kassim/>

Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries.

We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)

Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example). And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).

I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?) Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or that all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.

I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.

Is dominance a good thing? Yes, for Safcom. Is it a bad thing? Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.

I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security. If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.

That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.

Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give Safcom the challenge it deserves.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

John

Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..

I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.

Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)

*Ali Hussein*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

Listers, Ali.

It is a fact that "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature>

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Douglas, My thinking around this is a little more nuanced. Customers will always be disappointed with their service providers, there are ways in which all these players can compete especially given the age of the population. There are two ways to look at this - there's a failure by the regulator to break apart Safaricom or there's a failure by the competitors to take care of their customers. We cannot punish Safaricom for succeeding in that regard. There are many options available for competitors including; figuring out device rental and contract packages for enterprises (perhaps an old model), better customer care (Safaricom has more care centers in Nairobi alone than the competitors have Nationally), quality of the network etc. A fixation on the competition and not on the customer seems to me to be the bigger problem; Safaricom is by far the most expensive network and yet even with twin sim phones, folks still use Safaricom for voice/sms/data. Before M-Pesa Safaricom still had a bulk of the customers; Safaricom market share has gone down over the years since it launched M-Pesa.... The interconnection rate is hovering at a shilling. It's dirt cheap to connect to Safaricom; this has been the case for a while. On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 3:49 PM, Douglas Gichuki <dgichuki@strathmore.edu> wrote:

Phares,

Because the network walled garden has been sustained via mpesa rather than connectivity, FTTH. Etc. It is also likely the single largest cause for non- portability amongst non-enterprise users who are the majority of their voice and payments network. In the data market they have reasonable competition. In any case, breaking up the agent-network monopoly prevents the duplication of resources for a core function that is determinative of market crossover in the low to mid- tier segment.

The other likely pinch point would be interconnection rate. Collapsing this would be helpful given the sheer volume of calls that emanate from Safaricom to rival networks. Flat line interconnection, and inter- operate payment networks and let's have the competitive contests move on to new differentiated services and products.

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018, 2:37 PM Phares Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

Aren't there other areas where Safaricom didn't have an advantage? e.g. FTTH, Enterprise Connectivity etc? Why the fixation on voice/payments?

On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 9:31 PM, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

Let me just place the relevant provisions of the Competition Act (No. 16 of 2014) on the table:

In Kenya, being dominant is not illegal. It is the abuse of the dominant position which is regulated as per the provisions below. The Act deals with dominance in two forms i.e. in terms of market share or market power. There is a presumption of dominance once an undertaking controls 50% of the market (s.23), or if its share is below 40%, where the entity has market power. Market power is defined as the power of a firm to control prices, to exclude competition or to behave to an appreciable extent, independently of its competitors, customers or suppliers.

23. Criteria for determining dominant position (1) For purposes of this section, “dominant undertaking” means an undertaking which— (a) produces, supplies, distributes or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the total goods of any description which are produced, supplied or distributed in Kenya or any substantial part thereof; or (b) provides or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the services which are rendered in Kenya or any substantial part thereof. (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), an undertaking shall also be deemed to be dominant for the purposes of this Act where the undertaking— (a) though not dominant, controls at least forty per cent but not more than fifty per cent of the market share unless it can show that it does not have market power; or (b) controls less than forty per cent of the market share but has market power.

The Act proceeds to define some of the instances where abuse can be seen to have occurred under s.24 below. The list is not exhaustive.

24. Abuse of dominant position and buyer power (1) Any conduct which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in a market in Kenya, or a substantial part of Kenya, is prohibited. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), abuse of a dominant position includes— (a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions; (b) limiting or restricting production, market outlets or market access, investment, distribution, technical development or technological progress through predatory or other practices; (c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties; (d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by other parties of supplementary conditions which by their nature or according to commercial usage have no connection with the subject-matter of the contracts; and (e) abuse of an intellectual property right.

It will be interesting to see how this law develops to clarify these questions especially in the ICT sector. It must be noted though, that there are undertakings that continue to engage in restrictive trade practices within the sector. I think discussions on dominance should focus on abuse and restrictive trade practices, regardless of the entity in the sector. Being dominant is no offence. Sometimes small players in order to gain market share engage in restrictive trade practices.

The CAK is developing a number of regulations to clarify provisions and provide for relevant procedures under the Act. Once these are done, there should be greater clarity in the sector. It will over time need to develop the competence, courage and muscle in the scale of the EU Competition Commissioner, who recently slapped Google and Qualcomm with EUR 2.42 billion and EUR 997 million fines respectively for abusing their dominance.

*Victor Kapiyo* Partner | *Lawmark Partners LLP* *Suite No. 8, Centro House, Westlands, Nairobi | **Web: www.lawmark.co.ke <http://www.lawmark.co.ke> * ====================================================

*“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” Zig Ziglar*

On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 19:59, Walubengo J via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

@Andrew,

Very true. Do not punish the dominant player, as long as they are NOT abusing their dominance. Agreed.

Imagine this country where the dominant player is NOT guilty of abusing the dominance. He is innocently working hard, plays clean, innovates regularly and thus retains dominance year in year out - without hurting anyone.

How will that address the fact that when that innocent dominant player sneezes,

1) 67 % of mobile subscribers will not make a voice call. 2) close to 70% of Kenyans will not connect on the internet. 3) 81% of mobile money subscribers will not transact (basically the economy can come to a halt) (Ref Q3 2017/18 CA Report @ http://www.ca.go.ke/images/ downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Report%20Q3%202017-18%20.pdf

Listers, this debate should never be about Safaricom per se, nor its competition. It is about what options Kenya as a nation has, in the unlikely event that Safaricom goes down - which we must admit is rare, but we still must plan for such events.

One option is to work extra hard to ensure that Safcom never goes down. The other option is to ensure that if it does, the Statistics above are contained within a 'manageable size' of the market. My take is that we should try and do both.

If the above principle is agreed. The rest, as they say will be details.

walu.

On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, 12:45:44 PM GMT+3, Andrew Alston via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

I have another take on this – in terms of dominance and monopolies

Firstly – let me start by saying that I don’t have a problem with what I would call de-facto monopolies – that being, a monopoly that is a monopoly purely by virtue of being the primary (or only significant) player in the space – and I’m far from convinced that declaring such a player dominant and then trying to deliberately degrade their dominance is the way to go.

That being said – which such dominant players and potentially monopolies may exist – the key to dealing with them is to ensure that the regulatory environment exists to allow for the emergence of competition. Basically – if a player is either dominant or a monopoly – it must be constrained from behaving in a manner that would supress the emergence of true competition that is created by the free market (I.E I believe that there should be strict limitations on anti-competitive practices that should be strongly and vigorously enforced). This however is different from saying, a player is dominant or a monopoly, and hence we must split them up or force them into actions which actively CREATE the competition – they are very different things.

A classic example of this is the situation we find ourselves in with AFRINIC – They are a de-facto monopoly on the continent being the only RIR – and this would not be a problem if they a.) allowed their customers to transfer out to another RIR off continent or b.) the ICP-2 regulations allowed for the foundation of a second RIR – since (b) isn’t there, and since AFRINIC point blank refuses to implement (a) using the excuse that “the community hasn’t passed such” – I would argue they are behaving in a manner that is anti-competitive and should be subject to sanction under anti-trust regulations.

However – in the same vein – I would not advocate that AFRINIC be forced to create a competitor – they are free to keep their monopoly on continent so long as they allow their customers to up and go elsewhere should they choose to do so.

The same thing applies to any dominant player – ensure they are not using that dominance to supress competition and remove the ability for competition to rise – and I have no problem with it. However, allowing them to remain dominant while adopting anti-competitive practices – that is another story all together.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is – are we seeing anti-competitive practices and practices designed to enforce dominance – if yes – we have a problem – if no – let the free market take care of the issue.

Just my thought

Andrew

*From:* kictanet <kictanet-bounces+andrew.alston=liquidtelecom.com@ lists.kictanet.or.ke> *On Behalf Of *Ali Hussein via kictanet *Sent:* 31 July 2018 10:37 *To:* Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston@liquidtelecom.com> *Cc:* Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>; Admin CampusCiti via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Telcos CEOs on the spot in push to declare Safaricom dominant

@Walu

Your statement below sort of negates all that you have said, nah? :-)

*Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.*

We can continue this conversation further over a biryani lunch.. (And Steve Chege is welcome to join us) :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.

On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali,

I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared below, which states:

Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework.

I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory space, J. Bauer, (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c72/ 106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656cc7a5d7.pdf)

He defines a platform as follows:

“technological foundations upon which other products, services,and systems are built”

MPESA has provided the foundation and APIs upon which banking, eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built. It is a platform, irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such. Even FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but organically grew into being platforms.

Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are actually now Platforms.

Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.

But it is an interesting and wide topic. Maybe Safcom should sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein < ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:

@Walu

I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL

!

Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and

the

allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book *Platform Revolution <https://www.amazon.com/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Transforming-Economyand-ebook/dp/B00ZAT8VS4>* by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.

According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks <http://jonathanclarks.blogspot.de/2009/06/what-is-difference-between-platform-and.html>, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.”

So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi <https://www.google.com/search?q=VW+KOMBI&rlz=1C5CHFA_enKE800KE800&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=oebAUZqbFmXsSM%252Ch9Cx7Tj_4hnt2M%252C_&usg=__V7SZyrLUT-w4mOWCnPSbExol-8A%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjf2O6docfcAhXCxoUKHZuTCXIQ_h0wFXoECAoQCA&biw=1280&bih=726#imgrc=oebAUZqbFmXsSM>is a Toyota VX <https://www.toyota.com/landcruiser/> just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..

Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point.

We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood

s

..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up

but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure

I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:-

Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dominance-regulation-new-strategic-imperatives-ali-hussein-kassim/>

Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries.

We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)

Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example). And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).

I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?) Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or that all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.

I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.

Is dominance a good thing? Yes, for Safcom. Is it a bad thing? Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.

I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security. If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.

That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.

Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give Safcom the challenge it deserves.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

John

Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..

I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.

Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)

*Ali Hussein*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

Listers, Ali.

It is a fact that "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!

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Safaricom blames the situation under investment by competitors. https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-08-06/safaricom-blames-regu... Il giovedì 2 agosto 2018, Douglas Gichuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> ha scritto:

Phares,

Granted, the varied competition has dropped the ball severally since per second v per minute billing.

However, interconnection fees are not trivial. With 67 % of the market with Safaricom, and with the fee set at about 1.50 (there was a recommendation by Analysys Mason to move to 0.50 circa 2003!) and therefore having the majority of calls terminate into the Saf network, the competition is constantly in debt to Safaricom-and will always be.

Second, it has been argued here that we have not yet seen an abuse of dominance by the dominant player. I disagree. The network effects created by differential pricing to discourage calling outside of the home network is Prima facie an aspect of abuse of dominance. (To homestead customers). This alone should have triggered an inquiry into abuse of dominance. When the EU went after Microsoft it was merely for bundling explorer with word, such that the monopoly that Microsoft enjoyed in the OS space was now being spread into the browser space in the EU. The EU acted proactively. So the question of punishing success should not arise. And the key question should be how to administratively prevent the walled garden- even if that is perceived as punishing success (sic!). Hypothetically, If the dominant player becomes 98 % of the market you shut down your competition authority and cheer for the monopoly.

Finally an administrative issue. The DG of CA plus other board members are picked through a process involving executive oversight, so too the Competition Authority. In our current circumstances, Mshwari banks with CBA. Conflict of interest all day long.

So to reiterate, part of the point of competition regulation is not only to prevent abuse of dominance, but also to facilitate competition. That could even involve rules prohibiting vertical or backward integration between platforms.

On Thu, Aug 2, 2018, 1:24 PM Phares Kariuki <phares.kariuki@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Douglas,

My thinking around this is a little more nuanced. Customers will always be disappointed with their service providers, there are ways in which all these players can compete especially given the age of the population. There are two ways to look at this - there's a failure by the regulator to break apart Safaricom or there's a failure by the competitors to take care of their customers. We cannot punish Safaricom for succeeding in that regard. There are many options available for competitors including; figuring out device rental and contract packages for enterprises (perhaps an old model), better customer care (Safaricom has more care centers in Nairobi alone than the competitors have Nationally), quality of the network etc. A fixation on the competition and not on the customer seems to me to be the bigger problem; Safaricom is by far the most expensive network and yet even with twin sim phones, folks still use Safaricom for voice/sms/data. Before M-Pesa Safaricom still had a bulk of the customers; Safaricom market share has gone down over the years since it launched M-Pesa....

The interconnection rate is hovering at a shilling. It's dirt cheap to connect to Safaricom; this has been the case for a while.

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 3:49 PM, Douglas Gichuki <dgichuki@strathmore.edu> wrote:

...

Phares,

Because the network walled garden has been sustained via mpesa rather than connectivity, FTTH. Etc. It is also likely the single largest cause for non- portability amongst non-enterprise users who are the majority of their voice and payments network. In the data market they have reasonable competition. In any case, breaking up the agent-network monopoly prevents the duplication of resources for a core function that is determinative of market crossover in the low to mid- tier segment.

The other likely pinch point would be interconnection rate. Collapsing this would be helpful given the sheer volume of calls that emanate from Safaricom to rival networks. Flat line interconnection, and inter- operate payment networks and let's have the competitive contests move on to new differentiated services and products.

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018, 2:37 PM Phares Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

Aren't there other areas where Safaricom didn't have an advantage? e.g. FTTH, Enterprise Connectivity etc? Why the fixation on voice/payments?

On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 9:31 PM, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

Let me just place the relevant provisions of the Competition Act (No. 16 of 2014) on the table:

In Kenya, being dominant is not illegal. It is the abuse of the dominant position which is regulated as per the provisions below. The Act deals with dominance in two forms i.e. in terms of market share or market power. There is a presumption of dominance once an undertaking controls 50% of the market (s.23), or if its share is below 40%, where the entity has market power. Market power is defined as the power of a firm to control prices, to exclude competition or to behave to an appreciable extent, independently of its competitors, customers or suppliers.

23. Criteria for determining dominant position (1) For purposes of this section, “dominant undertaking” means an undertaking which— (a) produces, supplies, distributes or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the total goods of any description which are produced, supplied or distributed in Kenya or any substantial part thereof; or (b) provides or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the services which are rendered in Kenya or any substantial part thereof. (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), an undertaking shall also be deemed to be dominant for the purposes of this Act where the undertaking— (a) though not dominant, controls at least forty per cent but not more than fifty per cent of the market share unless it can show that it does not have market power; or (b) controls less than forty per cent of the market share but has market power.

The Act proceeds to define some of the instances where abuse can be seen to have occurred under s.24 below. The list is not exhaustive.

24. Abuse of dominant position and buyer power (1) Any conduct which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in a market in Kenya, or a substantial part of Kenya, is prohibited. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), abuse of a dominant position includes— (a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions; (b) limiting or restricting production, market outlets or market access, investment, distribution, technical development or technological progress through predatory or other practices; (c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties; (d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by other parties of supplementary conditions which by their nature or according to commercial usage have no connection with the subject-matter of the contracts; and (e) abuse of an intellectual property right.

It will be interesting to see how this law develops to clarify these questions especially in the ICT sector. It must be noted though, that there are undertakings that continue to engage in restrictive trade practices within the sector. I think discussions on dominance should focus on abuse and restrictive trade practices, regardless of the entity in the sector. Being dominant is no offence. Sometimes small players in order to gain market share engage in restrictive trade practices.

The CAK is developing a number of regulations to clarify provisions and provide for relevant procedures under the Act. Once these are done, there should be greater clarity in the sector. It will over time need to develop the competence, courage and muscle in the scale of the EU Competition Commissioner, who recently slapped Google and Qualcomm with EUR 2.42 billion and EUR 997 million fines respectively for abusing their dominance.

*Victor Kapiyo* Partner | *Lawmark Partners LLP* *Suite No. 8, Centro House, Westlands, Nairobi | **Web: www.lawmark.co.ke <http://www.lawmark.co.ke> * ====================================================

*“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” Zig Ziglar*

On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 19:59, Walubengo J via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

@Andrew,

Very true. Do not punish the dominant player, as long as they are NOT abusing their dominance. Agreed.

Imagine this country where the dominant player is NOT guilty of abusing the dominance. He is innocently working hard, plays clean, innovates regularly and thus retains dominance year in year out - without hurting anyone.

How will that address the fact that when that innocent dominant player sneezes,

1) 67 % of mobile subscribers will not make a voice call. 2) close to 70% of Kenyans will not connect on the internet. 3) 81% of mobile money subscribers will not transact (basically the economy can come to a halt) (Ref Q3 2017/18 CA Report @ http://www.ca.go.ke/images/ downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Report%20Q3% 202017-18%20.pdf

Listers, this debate should never be about Safaricom per se, nor its competition. It is about what options Kenya as a nation has, in the unlikely event that Safaricom goes down - which we must admit is rare, but we still must plan for such events.

One option is to work extra hard to ensure that Safcom never goes down. The other option is to ensure that if it does, the Statistics above are contained within a 'manageable size' of the market. My take is that we should try and do both.

If the above principle is agreed. The rest, as they say will be details.

walu.

On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, 12:45:44 PM GMT+3, Andrew Alston via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

I have another take on this – in terms of dominance and monopolies

Firstly – let me start by saying that I don’t have a problem with what I would call de-facto monopolies – that being, a monopoly that is a monopoly purely by virtue of being the primary (or only significant) player in the space – and I’m far from convinced that declaring such a player dominant and then trying to deliberately degrade their dominance is the way to go.

That being said – which such dominant players and potentially monopolies may exist – the key to dealing with them is to ensure that the regulatory environment exists to allow for the emergence of competition. Basically – if a player is either dominant or a monopoly – it must be constrained from behaving in a manner that would supress the emergence of true competition that is created by the free market (I.E I believe that there should be strict limitations on anti-competitive practices that should be strongly and vigorously enforced). This however is different from saying, a player is dominant or a monopoly, and hence we must split them up or force them into actions which actively CREATE the competition – they are very different things.

A classic example of this is the situation we find ourselves in with AFRINIC – They are a de-facto monopoly on the continent being the only RIR – and this would not be a problem if they a.) allowed their customers to transfer out to another RIR off continent or b.) the ICP-2 regulations allowed for the foundation of a second RIR – since (b) isn’t there, and since AFRINIC point blank refuses to implement (a) using the excuse that “the community hasn’t passed such” – I would argue they are behaving in a manner that is anti-competitive and should be subject to sanction under anti-trust regulations.

However – in the same vein – I would not advocate that AFRINIC be forced to create a competitor – they are free to keep their monopoly on continent so long as they allow their customers to up and go elsewhere should they choose to do so.

The same thing applies to any dominant player – ensure they are not using that dominance to supress competition and remove the ability for competition to rise – and I have no problem with it. However, allowing them to remain dominant while adopting anti-competitive practices – that is another story all together.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is – are we seeing anti-competitive practices and practices designed to enforce dominance – if yes – we have a problem – if no – let the free market take care of the issue.

Just my thought

Andrew

*From:* kictanet <kictanet-bounces+andrew.alston=liquidtelecom.com@ lists.kictanet.or.ke> *On Behalf Of *Ali Hussein via kictanet *Sent:* 31 July 2018 10:37 *To:* Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston@liquidtelecom.com> *Cc:* Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>; Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Telcos CEOs on the spot in push to declare Safaricom dominant

@Walu

Your statement below sort of negates all that you have said, nah? :-)

*Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.*

We can continue this conversation further over a biryani lunch.. (And Steve Chege is welcome to join us) :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.

On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali,

I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared below, which states:

Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework.

I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory space, J. Bauer, (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c72/ 106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656cc7a5d7.pdf)

He defines a platform as follows:

“technological foundations upon which other products, services,and systems are built”

MPESA has provided the foundation and APIs upon which banking, eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built. It is a platform, irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such. Even FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but organically grew into being platforms.

Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are actually now Platforms.

Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.

But it is an interesting and wide topic. Maybe Safcom should sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein < ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:

@Walu

I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL

!

Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and

the

allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book *Platform Revolution <https://www.amazon.com/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Transforming-Economyand-ebook/dp/B00ZAT8VS4>* by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.

According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks <http://jonathanclarks.blogspot.de/2009/06/what-is-difference-between-platform-and.html>, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.”

So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi <https://www.google.com/search?q=VW+KOMBI&rlz=1C5CHFA_enKE800KE800&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=oebAUZqbFmXsSM%252Ch9Cx7Tj_4hnt2M%252C_&usg=__V7SZyrLUT-w4mOWCnPSbExol-8A%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjf2O6docfcAhXCxoUKHZuTCXIQ_h0wFXoECAoQCA&biw=1280&bih=726#imgrc=oebAUZqbFmXsSM>is a Toyota VX <https://www.toyota.com/landcruiser/> just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..

Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point.

We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood

s

..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up

but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure

I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:-

Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dominance-regulation-new-strategic-imperatives-ali-hussein-kassim/>

Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries.

We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

@Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)

Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example). And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).

I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?) Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or that all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.

I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.

Is dominance a good thing? Yes, for Safcom. Is it a bad thing? Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.

I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security. If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.

That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.

Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give Safcom the challenge it deserves.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

John

Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..

I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.

Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)

*Ali Hussein*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

Listers, Ali.

It is a fact that "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!

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The telcoms market in Kenya has turned out just like the politics of our country. I will leave this here, having followed the politics of the telcoms market in Kenya for a while now. It is worth noting that Kenya is not an island in the telcoms world where regulators in various parts of the world have acted, putting in the right policies and regulations to the benefit of their consumers, and for the prosperity of their industry. In our case, everyone knows what needs to be done - the regulators and policy makers - they also know why, how, and when its needs to be done, but no one wants to do it simply to keep in right corner, and to fuel and promote opinions that continue to occupy peoples time, minds and energy away from doing the right things, including such opinions from those whose knowledge and expertise are indeed far removed from the reality of the Industry. Well, history will judge us, and those that will live the legacy will the be ones that will one day wake up to the call of duty, and do the right thing for their country, what they are rightly paid to do, and the market even though it meant losing close friends and allies, and business associates, just like our own President Uhuru did when he took on the monster of corruption and its networks, and ill gotten gains at the expense of the public. On Sat, Aug 18, 2018 at 10:38 AM Grace Bomu via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

More on this matter: op-ed by institute for economic affairs

The committee made the decision to only admit submissions from the main market contestants and selected regulatory bodies. This representation is troublesome because it reflects the consistent error that affects regulatory policy and law setting in Kenya.

Read on https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/Parliament-needs-to-be-careful-of-indust...

Il martedì 7 agosto 2018, Grace Bomu <nmutungu@gmail.com> ha scritto:

...

Safaricom blames the situation under investment by competitors.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-08-06/safaricom-blames-regu...

Il giovedì 2 agosto 2018, Douglas Gichuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> ha scritto:

...

Phares,

Granted, the varied competition has dropped the ball severally since per second v per minute billing.

However, interconnection fees are not trivial. With 67 % of the market with Safaricom, and with the fee set at about 1.50 (there was a recommendation by Analysys Mason to move to 0.50 circa 2003!) and therefore having the majority of calls terminate into the Saf network, the competition is constantly in debt to Safaricom-and will always be.

Second, it has been argued here that we have not yet seen an abuse of dominance by the dominant player. I disagree. The network effects created by differential pricing to discourage calling outside of the home network is Prima facie an aspect of abuse of dominance. (To homestead customers). This alone should have triggered an inquiry into abuse of dominance. When the EU went after Microsoft it was merely for bundling explorer with word, such that the monopoly that Microsoft enjoyed in the OS space was now being spread into the browser space in the EU. The EU acted proactively. So the question of punishing success should not arise. And the key question should be how to administratively prevent the walled garden- even if that is perceived as punishing success (sic!). Hypothetically, If the dominant player becomes 98 % of the market you shut down your competition authority and cheer for the monopoly.

Finally an administrative issue. The DG of CA plus other board members are picked through a process involving executive oversight, so too the Competition Authority. In our current circumstances, Mshwari banks with CBA. Conflict of interest all day long.

So to reiterate, part of the point of competition regulation is not only to prevent abuse of dominance, but also to facilitate competition. That could even involve rules prohibiting vertical or backward integration between platforms.

On Thu, Aug 2, 2018, 1:24 PM Phares Kariuki <phares.kariuki@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Douglas,

My thinking around this is a little more nuanced. Customers will always be disappointed with their service providers, there are ways in which all these players can compete especially given the age of the population. There are two ways to look at this - there's a failure by the regulator to break apart Safaricom or there's a failure by the competitors to take care of their customers. We cannot punish Safaricom for succeeding in that regard. There are many options available for competitors including; figuring out device rental and contract packages for enterprises (perhaps an old model), better customer care (Safaricom has more care centers in Nairobi alone than the competitors have Nationally), quality of the network etc. A fixation on the competition and not on the customer seems to me to be the bigger problem; Safaricom is by far the most expensive network and yet even with twin sim phones, folks still use Safaricom for voice/sms/data. Before M-Pesa Safaricom still had a bulk of the customers; Safaricom market share has gone down over the years since it launched M-Pesa....

The interconnection rate is hovering at a shilling. It's dirt cheap to connect to Safaricom; this has been the case for a while.

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 3:49 PM, Douglas Gichuki < dgichuki@strathmore.edu> wrote:

...

Phares,

Because the network walled garden has been sustained via mpesa rather than connectivity, FTTH. Etc. It is also likely the single largest cause for non- portability amongst non-enterprise users who are the majority of their voice and payments network. In the data market they have reasonable competition. In any case, breaking up the agent-network monopoly prevents the duplication of resources for a core function that is determinative of market crossover in the low to mid- tier segment.

The other likely pinch point would be interconnection rate. Collapsing this would be helpful given the sheer volume of calls that emanate from Safaricom to rival networks. Flat line interconnection, and inter- operate payment networks and let's have the competitive contests move on to new differentiated services and products.

On Wed, Aug 1, 2018, 2:37 PM Phares Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

Aren't there other areas where Safaricom didn't have an advantage? e.g. FTTH, Enterprise Connectivity etc? Why the fixation on voice/payments?

On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 9:31 PM, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Let me just place the relevant provisions of the Competition Act (No. > 16 of 2014) on the table: > > In Kenya, being dominant is not illegal. It is the abuse of the > dominant position which is regulated as per the provisions below. The Act > deals with dominance in two forms i.e. in terms of market share or market > power. There is a presumption of dominance once an undertaking controls 50% > of the market (s.23), or if its share is below 40%, where the entity has > market power. Market power is defined as the power of a firm to > control prices, to exclude competition or to behave to an appreciable > extent, independently of its competitors, customers or suppliers. > > 23. Criteria for determining dominant position > (1) For purposes of this section, “dominant undertaking” means an > undertaking which— > (a) produces, supplies, distributes or otherwise controls not less > than one-half of the total goods of any description which are produced, > supplied or distributed in Kenya or any substantial part thereof; or > (b) provides or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the > services which are rendered in Kenya or any substantial part thereof. > (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), an undertaking shall also be > deemed to be dominant for the purposes of this Act where the undertaking— > (a) though not dominant, controls at least forty per cent but not > more than fifty per cent of the market share unless it can show that it > does not have market power; or > (b) controls less than forty per cent of the market share but has > market power. > > The Act proceeds to define some of the instances where abuse can be > seen to have occurred under s.24 below. The list is not exhaustive. > > 24. Abuse of dominant position and buyer power > (1) Any conduct which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in > a market in Kenya, or a substantial part of Kenya, is prohibited. > (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), abuse of > a dominant position includes— > (a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling > prices or other unfair trading conditions; > (b) limiting or restricting production, market outlets or market > access, investment, distribution, technical development or technological > progress through predatory or other practices; > (c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with > other trading parties; > (d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by > other parties of supplementary conditions which by their nature or > according to commercial usage have no connection with the subject-matter of > the contracts; and > (e) abuse of an intellectual property right. > > It will be interesting to see how this law develops to clarify these > questions especially in the ICT sector. It must be noted though, that there > are undertakings that continue to engage in restrictive trade practices > within the sector. I think discussions on dominance should focus on abuse > and restrictive trade practices, regardless of the entity in the sector. > Being dominant is no offence. Sometimes small players in order to gain > market share engage in restrictive trade practices. > > The CAK is developing a number of regulations to clarify provisions > and provide for relevant procedures under the Act. Once these are done, > there should be greater clarity in the sector. It will over time > need to develop the competence, courage and muscle in the scale of the EU > Competition Commissioner, who recently slapped Google and Qualcomm with EUR > 2.42 billion and EUR 997 million fines respectively for abusing > their dominance. > > > *Victor Kapiyo* > Partner | *Lawmark Partners LLP* > *Suite No. 8, Centro House, Westlands, Nairobi | **Web: > www.lawmark.co.ke <http://www.lawmark.co.ke> * > ==================================================== > > *“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” > Zig Ziglar* > > > On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 19:59, Walubengo J via kictanet < > kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: > >> @Andrew, >> >> Very true. Do not punish the dominant player, as long as they are >> NOT abusing their dominance. Agreed. >> >> Imagine this country where the dominant player is NOT guilty of >> abusing the dominance. He is innocently working hard, plays clean, >> innovates regularly and thus retains dominance year in year out - without >> hurting anyone. >> >> How will that address the fact that when that innocent dominant >> player sneezes, >> >> 1) 67 % of mobile subscribers will not make a voice call. >> 2) close to 70% of Kenyans will not connect on the internet. >> 3) 81% of mobile money subscribers will not transact (basically the >> economy can come to a halt) >> (Ref Q3 2017/18 CA Report @ >> http://www.ca.go.ke/images/downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Report... >> >> Listers, this debate should never be about Safaricom per se, nor >> its competition. It is about what options Kenya as a nation has, in the >> unlikely event that Safaricom goes down - which we must admit is rare, but >> we still must plan for such events. >> >> One option is to work extra hard to ensure that Safcom never goes >> down. The other option is to ensure that if it does, the Statistics above >> are contained within a 'manageable size' of the market. My take is that we >> should try and do both. >> >> If the above principle is agreed. The rest, as they say will be >> details. >> >> walu. >> >> >> On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, 12:45:44 PM GMT+3, Andrew Alston via >> kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: >> >> >> I have another take on this – in terms of dominance and monopolies >> >> >> >> Firstly – let me start by saying that I don’t have a problem with >> what I would call de-facto monopolies – that being, a monopoly that is a >> monopoly purely by virtue of being the primary (or only significant) player >> in the space – and I’m far from convinced that declaring such a player >> dominant and then trying to deliberately degrade their dominance is the way >> to go. >> >> >> >> That being said – which such dominant players and potentially >> monopolies may exist – the key to dealing with them is to ensure that the >> regulatory environment exists to allow for the emergence of competition. >> Basically – if a player is either dominant or a monopoly – it must be >> constrained from behaving in a manner that would supress the emergence of >> true competition that is created by the free market (I.E I believe that >> there should be strict limitations on anti-competitive practices that >> should be strongly and vigorously enforced). This however is different >> from saying, a player is dominant or a monopoly, and hence we must split >> them up or force them into actions which actively CREATE the competition – >> they are very different things. >> >> >> >> A classic example of this is the situation we find ourselves in >> with AFRINIC – They are a de-facto monopoly on the continent being the only >> RIR – and this would not be a problem if they a.) allowed their customers >> to transfer out to another RIR off continent or b.) the ICP-2 regulations >> allowed for the foundation of a second RIR – since (b) isn’t there, and >> since AFRINIC point blank refuses to implement (a) using the excuse that >> “the community hasn’t passed such” – I would argue they are behaving in a >> manner that is anti-competitive and should be subject to sanction under >> anti-trust regulations. >> >> However – in the same vein – I would not advocate that AFRINIC be >> forced to create a competitor – they are free to keep their monopoly on >> continent so long as they allow their customers to up and go elsewhere >> should they choose to do so. >> >> >> >> The same thing applies to any dominant player – ensure they are not >> using that dominance to supress competition and remove the ability for >> competition to rise – and I have no problem with it. However, allowing >> them to remain dominant while adopting anti-competitive practices – that is >> another story all together. >> >> >> >> So the question we need to ask ourselves is – are we seeing >> anti-competitive practices and practices designed to enforce dominance – if >> yes – we have a problem – if no – let the free market take care of the >> issue. >> >> >> >> Just my thought >> >> >> >> Andrew >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> *From:* kictanet <kictanet-bounces+andrew.alston= >> liquidtelecom.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *On Behalf Of *Ali Hussein >> via kictanet >> *Sent:* 31 July 2018 10:37 >> *To:* Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston@liquidtelecom.com> >> *Cc:* Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>; Admin CampusCiti via >> kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> >> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Telcos CEOs on the spot in push to >> declare Safaricom dominant >> >> >> >> @Walu >> >> >> >> Your statement below sort of negates all that you have said, nah? >> :-) >> >> >> >> *Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. >> They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield >> them from platform responsibilities.* >> >> >> >> We can continue this conversation further over a biryani lunch.. >> (And Steve Chege is welcome to join us) :-) >> >> >> >> Regards >> >> >> *Ali Hussein* >> >> *Principal* >> >> *AHK & Associates* >> >> >> >> Tel: +254 713 601113 >> >> Twitter: @AliHKassim >> >> Skype: abu-jomo >> >> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim >> >> >> >> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, >> >> Chiromo Road, Westlands, >> >> Nairobi, Kenya. >> >> >> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are >> purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the >> organizations that I work with. >> >> >> >> On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> >> wrote: >> >> @Ali, >> >> >> >> I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. >> MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared >> below, which states: >> >> >> >> Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built >> within the same technical framework. >> >> >> >> I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory >> space, J. Bauer, ( >> https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c72/106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656cc7a5d7.p... >> ) >> >> >> >> He defines a platform as follows: >> >> >> >> “technological foundations upon which other products, services,and >> systems are built” >> >> >> >> MPESA has provided the foundation and APIs upon which banking, >> eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built. It is a platform, >> irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such. Even >> FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but >> organically grew into being platforms. >> >> >> >> Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of >> these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their >> systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are >> actually now Platforms. >> >> >> >> Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. >> They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield >> them from platform responsibilities. >> >> >> >> But it is an interesting and wide topic. Maybe Safcom should >> sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated. >> >> >> >> walu. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein < >> ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >> @Walu >> >> >> >> I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL >> >> ! >> >> >> >> Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and >> >> the >> >> allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the book *Platform >> Revolution >> <https://www.amazon.com/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Transforming-Economyand-ebook/dp/B00ZAT8VS4>* >> by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey. >> >> >> >> According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks >> <http://jonathanclarks.blogspot.de/2009/06/what-is-difference-between-platform-and.html>, >> “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within >> the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope >> that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they >> built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a >> platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows >> multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is >> an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they >> have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by >> selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.” >> >> >> >> So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't >> built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a >> Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi >> <https://www.google.com/search?q=VW+KOMBI&rlz=1C5CHFA_enKE800KE800&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=oebAUZqbFmXsSM%252Ch9Cx7Tj_4hnt2M%252C_&usg=__V7SZyrLUT-w4mOWCnPSbExol-8A%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjf2O6docfcAhXCxoUKHZuTCXIQ_h0wFXoECAoQCA&biw=1280&bih=726#imgrc=oebAUZqbFmXsSM>is >> a Toyota VX <https://www.toyota.com/landcruiser/> just because >> some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 >> with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 >> hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) >> With all due respect to Safaricom of course.. >> >> >> >> >> >> Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. >> The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. >> Facebook is a Platform. You get my point. >> >> >> >> We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be >> since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood >> >> s >> >> ..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them >> instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies >> that Governments were unable to break up >> >> but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not >> optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look >> inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of >> course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% >> of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure >> >> >> >> I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with >> the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between >> the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) >> on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) >> and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is >> today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to >> make a sense of it. See link below:- >> >> >> >> >> >> Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives >> <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dominance-regulation-new-strategic-imperatives-ali-hussein-kassim/> >> >> >> >> Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As >> untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. >> Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, >> Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant >> on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super >> Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government >> create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure >> they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business >> Models that transcend industries. >> >> >> >> >> >> We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of >> by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of >> course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-) >> >> >> >> Regards >> >> >> >> *Ali Hussein* >> >> *Principal* >> >> *AHK & Associates* >> >> +254 0713 601113 >> >> >> >> Twitter: @AliHKassim >> >> Skype: abu-jomo >> >> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim >> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> >> >> >> >> "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act >> but a habit." ~ Aristotle >> >> >> >> >> >> Sent from my iPad >> >> >> On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: >> >> @Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-) >> >> >> >> Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example). >> And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most >> government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-). >> >> >> >> I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and >> when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year >> market study?) Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred >> corporate jewels not to be touched or that all markets will eventually >> self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming >> under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past. >> >> >> >> I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can >> claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the >> dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy. >> >> >> >> Is dominance a good thing? Yes, for Safcom. Is it a bad thing? >> Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election >> results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some >> areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile >> money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week >> ago. >> >> >> >> I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise >> above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of >> national security. If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its >> shareholders (me with my very small shares included), BUT it is bad thing >> for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives. >> >> >> >> That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom >> is the answer either. >> >> >> >> Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' >> sort of thing will be able to give Safcom the challenge it deserves. >> >> >> >> walu. >> >> >> >> On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via >> kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >> John >> >> >> >> Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can >> see clearly.. #JustSaying.. >> >> >> >> I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on >> competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of >> Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school >> models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient >> way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over. >> >> >> >> Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage >> on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He >> must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-) >> >> *Ali Hussein* >> >> >> >> +254 0713 601113 >> >> >> >> Twitter: @AliHKassim >> >> Skype: abu-jomo >> >> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim >> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> >> >> Blog: www.alyhussein.com >> >> >> >> "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and >> thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi >> >> >> >> Sent from my iPad >> >> >> On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet < >> kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: >> >> Listers, Ali. >> >> It is a fact that "In certain telecommunications market segments >> in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law >> will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or >> innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If >> it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged >> this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection >> which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant >> told my then bosses many years ago and I quote "The fact that you refuse >> to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had >> listened! >> >> >> >> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android >> <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature> >> >> >> >> On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet >> >> <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: >> >> ______________________________ _________________ >> kictanet mailing list >> kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke >> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/listinfo/kictanet >> <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet> >> Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet >> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ KICTANet/ >> <https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/> >> Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke >> >> Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ >> mailman/options/kictanet/ kariuki_jn%40yahoo.com >> <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/kariuki_jn%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. 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Was about to ask @Victor K about the same. Which law applies particularly in light of the 'rumor'* that a court ruling removed the mandate of the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) from handling Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) related matters. walu.*rumor since I dont seem to have the court ruling. Maybe the learned folks may have and may share. On Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 6:49:42 PM GMT+3, John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: Listers,Victor,I agree with Victor regarding general  Competition Law.However, it happens that,as an exception , the unique nature of the telecommunications industry is also recognized under Kenya Information and Communications(Amendment )Act 2013  .Please see Section 84(W)(3)(4)(5) of the Act.  John Kariuki On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, 9:50:02 PM GMT+3, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: Let me just place the relevant provisions of the Competition Act (No. 16 of 2014) on the table: In Kenya, being dominant is not illegal. It is the abuse of the dominant position which is regulated as per the provisions below. The Act deals with dominance in two forms i.e. in terms of market share or market power. There is a presumption of dominance once an undertaking controls 50% of the market (s.23), or if its share is below 40%, where the entity has market power. Market power is defined as the power of a firm to control prices, to exclude competition or to behave to an appreciable extent, independently of its competitors, customers or suppliers.  23. Criteria for determining dominant position(1) For purposes of this section, “dominant undertaking” means an undertaking which—(a) produces, supplies, distributes or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the total goods of any description which are produced, supplied or distributed in Kenya or any substantial part thereof; or(b) provides or otherwise controls not less than one-half of the services which are rendered in Kenya or any substantial part thereof.(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), an undertaking shall also be deemed to be dominant for the purposes of this Act where the undertaking—(a) though not dominant, controls at least forty per cent but not more than fifty per cent of the market share unless it can show that it does not have market power; or(b) controls less than forty per cent of the market share but has market power. The Act proceeds to define some of the instances where abuse can be seen to have occurred under s.24 below. The list is not exhaustive. 24. Abuse of dominant position and buyer power(1) Any conduct which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in a market in Kenya, or a substantial part of Kenya, is prohibited.(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), abuse of a dominant position includes—(a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;(b) limiting or restricting production, market outlets or market access, investment, distribution, technical development or technological progress through predatory or other practices;(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties;(d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by other parties of supplementary conditions which by their nature or according to commercial usage have no connection with the subject-matter of the contracts; and(e) abuse of an intellectual property right. It will be interesting to see how this law develops to clarify these questions especially in the ICT sector. It must be noted though, that there are undertakings that continue to engage in restrictive trade practices within the sector. I think discussions on dominance should focus on abuse and restrictive trade practices, regardless of the entity in the sector. Being dominant is no offence. Sometimes small players in order to gain market share engage in restrictive trade practices.  The CAK is developing a number of regulations to clarify provisions and provide for relevant procedures under the Act. Once these are done, there should be greater clarity in the sector. It will over time need to develop the competence, courage and muscle in the scale of the EU Competition Commissioner, who recently slapped Google and Qualcomm with EUR 2.42 billion and EUR 997 million fines respectively for abusing their dominance.  Victor Kapiyo Partner | Lawmark Partners LLPSuite No. 8, Centro House, Westlands, Nairobi | Web: www.lawmark.co.ke ==================================================== “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” Zig Ziglar On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 19:59, Walubengo J via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: @Andrew, Very true. Do not punish the dominant player, as long as they are NOT abusing their dominance. Agreed. Imagine this country where the dominant player is NOT guilty of abusing the dominance. He is innocently working hard, plays clean, innovates regularly and thus retains dominance year in year out - without  hurting anyone. How will that address the fact that when that innocent dominant player sneezes, 1) 67 % of mobile subscribers will not make a voice call.2) close to 70% of Kenyans will not connect on the internet.3) 81% of mobile money subscribers will not transact (basically the economy can come to a halt)(Ref Q3 2017/18 CA Report @ http://www.ca.go.ke/images/downloads/STATISTICS/Sector%20Statistics%20Report... Listers, this debate should never be about Safaricom per se, nor its competition.  It is about what options Kenya as a nation has, in the unlikely event  that Safaricom goes down - which we must admit is rare, but we still must plan for such events. One option is to work extra hard to ensure that Safcom never goes down.  The other option is to ensure that if it does, the Statistics above are contained within a 'manageable size' of the market.  My take is that we should try and  do both. If the above principle is agreed. The rest, as they say will be details. walu. On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, 12:45:44 PM GMT+3, Andrew Alston via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: I have another take on this – in terms of dominance and monopolies   Firstly – let me start by saying that I don’t have a problem with what I would call de-facto monopolies – that being, a monopoly that is a monopoly purely by virtue of being the primary (or only significant) player in the space – and I’m far from convinced that declaring such a player dominant and then trying to deliberately degrade their dominance is the way to go.   That being said – which such dominant players and potentially monopolies may exist – the key to dealing with them is to ensure that the regulatory environment exists to allow for the emergence of competition.  Basically – if a player is either dominant or a monopoly – it must be constrained from behaving in a manner that would supress the emergence of true competition that is created by the free market (I.E I believe that there should be strict limitations on anti-competitive practices that should be strongly and vigorously enforced).  This however is different from saying, a player is dominant or a monopoly, and hence we must split them up or force them into actions which actively CREATE the competition – they are very different things.   A classic example of this is the situation we find ourselves in with AFRINIC – They are a de-facto monopoly on the continent being the only RIR – and this would not be a problem if they a.) allowed their customers to transfer out to another RIR off continent or b.) the ICP-2 regulations allowed for the foundation of a second RIR – since (b) isn’t there, and since AFRINIC point blank refuses to implement (a) using the excuse that “the community hasn’t passed such” – I would argue they are behaving in a manner that is anti-competitive and should be subject to sanction under anti-trust regulations. However – in the same vein – I would not advocate that AFRINIC be forced to create a competitor – they are free to keep their monopoly on continent so long as they allow their customers to up and go elsewhere should they choose to do so.   The same thing applies to any dominant player – ensure they are not using that dominance to supress competition and remove the ability for competition to rise – and I have no problem with it.  However, allowing them to remain dominant while adopting anti-competitive practices – that is another story all together.   So the question we need to ask ourselves is – are we seeing anti-competitive practices and practices designed to enforce dominance – if yes – we have a problem – if no – let the free market take care of the issue.   Just my thought   Andrew         From: kictanet <kictanet-bounces+andrew.alston=liquidtelecom.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke>On Behalf Of Ali Hussein via kictanet Sent: 31 July 2018 10:37 To: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston@liquidtelecom.com> Cc: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>; Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Telcos CEOs on the spot in push to declare Safaricom dominant   @Walu   Your statement below sort of negates all that you have said, nah? :-)   Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.   We can continue this conversation further over a biryani lunch.. (And Steve Chege is welcome to join us) :-)   Regards Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates   Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn:http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim   13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.   On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: @Ali,   I agree with everything you say below except on the platform thing. MPESA is a indeed a platform, even by your own definition that you shared below, which states:    Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework.   I had my own definition from a leading researcher in the regulatory space, J. Bauer, (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2c72/106282dfe7b5a35e5981cf02fe656cc7a5d7.p...)   He defines a platform  as follows:   “technological foundations upon which other products, services,and systems are built”    MPESA has provided  the foundation and APIs upon which banking, eCommerce, Payment Gateways, etc have been built.  It is a platform, irrespective of the fact that initially it was not designed as such.  Even FB, Google, AWS, and many others were initially private entities but organically grew into being platforms.   Which really is the regulatory crux of the matter. The owners of these emerging platforms still want to play by the old rules when their systems were Products, conveniently ignoring the fact that they are actually now Platforms.     Infact MPESA is BOTH a platform and a product at the same time. They just chose to play by product rules when it is convenient to shield them from platform responsibilities.   But it is an interesting and wide topic.  Maybe Safcom should sponsor a 1week e-discussion to enable this to be ventilated.   walu.            On Monday, July 30, 2018, 8:11:40 PM GMT+3, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:     @Walu   I was baiting you..and you fell for it.. LOL !   Let me first address the issue of Mpesa and the allegations that it is a Platform. I recommend the bookPlatform Revolution by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsytne and Sangeet Paul Choudrey.    According to Tech blogger Jonathan Clarks, “Platforms are structures that allow multiple products to be built within the same technical framework. Companies invest in platforms in the hope that future products can be developed faster and cheaper, than if they built them stand-alone. Today it is much more important to think of a platform as a business framework. By this I mean a framework that allows multiple business models to be built and supported. For instance, Amazon is an online retail framework. Amazon started by selling books. Over time they have expanded to selling all sorts of other things. Apple iTunes started by selling tracks and now uses the same framework to sell videos.”   So back to my issue of whether M-Pesa is a Platform. M-Pesa wasn't built from the ground up to be a Platform. To claim that M-Pesa is a Platform is like saying that a VW Kombi is a Toyota VX  just because some Jua Kali mechanic decided to put a 5.7-Liter DOHC 32-Valve V8 with Dual Independent Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i); 381 hp @ 5600 rpm; 401 lb.-ft. @ 3600 rpm into the Kombi - #JustSaying.. :-) With all due respect to Safaricom of course..      Platforms are an amazing thing to behold. Apple IOS is a Platform. The Amazon Ecosystem is a Platform. Google's Android is a Platform. Facebook is a Platform. You get my point.   We spend alot of time bashing Safaricom. And it is as it should be since they are the Big Boys/Girls in our part of the wood s ..But Safaricom has so many problems..I wish we can exploit them instead of wasting so much energy on them.. The world is full of companies that Governments were unable to break up but the market took care of that.. The regulatory landscape is not optimal for sure..and that can be worked on..But we also need to look inwards..Barclays is already taking steps with Timiza, so is HF..And of course there is Equity..The fact is this - We are all fighting for the 80% of the 10% market Safaricom has in mobile money..#GoFigure   I agree with you that the Regulator needs to get up to speed with the new reality. However it's not that simple. Remember the tussle between the CA (Communications Authority) and CAK (Competitions Authority of Kenya) on the Market Study? Add to this mix the CMA (Capital Markets Authority) and CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) to get an idea of how tough regulation is today. At the height of the dominance conversation last year I attempted to make a sense of it. See link below:-     Dominance, Regulation and the New Strategic Imperatives    Here's a fact that most of us don't want to come to terms with. As untidy as free markets are, they are more efficient than Governments. Chairman William Kisang of the House Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation is my hero for seeing off this continuous rant on Dominance. Now he must take it one step further and create a Super Regulator (It can be that the different regulators and arms of government create a working committee that meets regularly and share notes to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to Innovation and New Business Models that transcend industries.     We must move forward. Safaricom's 'dominance' will be taken care of by the Market. With a little help from a forward looking regulator of course..I'm willing to bet my next year's salary on it. :-)   Regards   Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates +254 0713 601113    Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim   "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle     Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 6:35 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: @Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)   Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example).  And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).     I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?)  Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or  that  all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.   I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.    Is dominance  a good thing? Yes, for Safcom.  Is it a bad thing?  Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.    I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security.  If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares  included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.   That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.     Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give  Safcom the challenge it deserves.   walu.   On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:     John   Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..   I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.    Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)  Ali Hussein   +254 0713 601113    Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com   "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi   Sent from my iPad On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: Listers, Ali.  It is a fact that  "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote  "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!    Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android   On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote: ______________________________ _________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/ kariuki_jn%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. 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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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke 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.   _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke 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. _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/vkapiyo%40gmail.com The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/kariuki_jn%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. 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Safaricom’s parent company sued its Italian competitor in 2013. “Vodafone Sues Telecom Italia for €1bn Over 'Dominance Abuse' Is Kenya unique market void of proper ex-ante, ex-post regulation. ibtimes.co.uk/vodafone-telec… Vodafone Sues Telecom Italia for €1bn Over 'Dominance Abuse' By Jerin Mathew <https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/reporters/jerin-mathew>On 8/5/13 at 7:27 AM [image: Telecom Italia]A Telecom Italia antenna booster is seen in northern Rome Vodafone's Italian subsidiary is suing Telecom Italia for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the country as the British telecom giant is seeking to overcome hurdles impeding profitability. Vodafone Italy which is 77% owned by Vodafone is seeking damages of more than €1bn ($1.3bn, £869m) from Telecom Italia. The Italian company has committed a series of abuses from 2008 to 2013 "with the intention and effect of impeding growth in competition in the Italian fixed-line market", claims Vodafone. Vodafone charged that it suffered severe customer loss due to Telecom Italia's dominant position in the market. In addition, Telecom Italia allegedly restricted Vodafone Italy's ability to grow its fixed-line business, and forced it to pay artificially high costs to compete in the market. *Rising Competition in Europe* Last month, Vodafone said <https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/vodafone-q1-earnings-competition-price-pressure-492417> its first quarter income and sales were hit by regulation, rising competition and the ongoing recession across Europe. First quarter service revenue at Vodafone fell 3.5% to £10.16bn, which is the fourth successive quarterly decline. In Italy and Spain, the company posted double-digit falls. Service revenue in southern Europe plunged 14.4%. Italy was down 17.6% owing to "price reductions, a deteriorating economic environment and the ongoing impact of steep mobile-termination-rate cuts". Spain fell 10.6% owing to a "lower customer base and the increased popularity of discounted-converged consumer offers in that market". With the lawsuit, Vodafone intends to tackle its troubles in Italy where it finds market conditions tough. *Market Dominance Questioned* In May, Italy's competition authority imposed a fine of about €140m on Telecom Italia for abusing its dominant market position as owner and manager of the country's largest fixed-line telephone network. Pressured by peers and authorities, the company is planning to spin off its fixed-line copper network that gives it a competitive edge. The Vodafone case filed at the Court of Milan is the latest blow to Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabè, who is looking to restructure the group amid falling revenues in its fixed-line and online business. It had to write down a further €2.2bn in goodwill for the first half of the year, increasing its impairments close to €14bn since the start of 2011. Telecom Italia rejected the allegations of Vodafone and said it was confident of demonstrating the correctness of its behaviour. It is also appealing against the antitrust fine, which was imposed after a three-year probe prompted by rivals Wind, Italy's third-largest mobile operator, and broadband company Fastweb. On Mon, 30 Jul 2018 at 18:37, Walubengo J via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

@Ali, am with Eng Kariuki on this one ;-)

Indeed we are in the age of platforms (read MPESA as an example). And yes we can't blame Safcom for milking MPESA to the hilt (eg. most government service mobile money payments have a preferred providers ;-).

I would rather blame the regulator for not seeing this coming, and when they finally saw it, they dilly dallied to intervene (remember 2year market study?) Furthermore, previous thinking that platforms are sacred corporate jewels not to be touched or that all markets will eventually self-correct have been proved wrong elsewhere with FB, Google, etc coming under heavy 'regulatory fire' in the recent past.

I dont claim to have the answer to Safcom dominance, but I can claim very strongly that the market forces will never self-correct the dominant position that Safcom continues to enjoy.

Is dominance a good thing? Yes, for Safcom. Is it a bad thing? Yes, for a country that may realize that they cannot transmit election results simply because the competing providers dont have presence in some areas under their zones. Or that you can't access internet or send mobile money coz Safcom network sneezed for an hour or two as it happened a week ago.

I have said this before, the dominance conversation must be rise above competition issues and begin to be interrogated at the level of national security. If Safcom beats competition to pulp, it is good for its shareholders (me with my very small shares included), BUT it is bad thing for the country that may discover they have no commensurate alternatives.

That said, I dont believe baby sitting competition to beat Safcom is the answer either.

Only a new innovation, perhaps the next 'MPESA on a Blockchain' sort of thing will be able to give Safcom the challenge it deserves.

walu.

On Monday, July 30, 2018, 6:00:10 PM GMT+3, Admin CampusCiti via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

John

Fortunately I’m not a graduate of Telecommunications Law.. So I can see clearly.. #JustSaying..

I have always advocated for a review of the Framework on competition in not just the Telco sector but most sectors. The Age of Platforms Is here my brother. And we ignore it or focus on old school models of competition at our own risk. The Government is a very inefficient way to correct market conditions. Look at what is happening the world over.

Why don’t we go ahead and also declare Uber dominant? Let’s engage on this issue and not shoot from the hip. Chairman Kisang is my hero. He must have been smoking the right thing that morning. :-)

*Ali Hussein*

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jul 2018, at 5:37 PM, John Kariuki via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Listers, Ali. It is a fact that "In certain telecommunications market segments in Kenya, SAFARICOM is dominant. Any graduate of telecommunications law will confirm that. It has nothing to do with punishing success or innovation. It is a matter of telecommunications and competition laws. If it was in UK or EU I have no doubt that the issue would not have dragged this long. Remember we also have the 'small problem' of Data Protection which has dragged for at least 10 years. Just to repeat what one consultant told my then bosses many years ago and I quote "The fact that you refuse to see a problem does not mean that it does not exist". If only we had listened!

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature>

On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 14:37, Barrack Otieno via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: _______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke

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Douglas That interoperability thingi is already a done deal.. Though in my honest opinion Safaricom should have done it way way long ago voluntarily. That's what #PlatformFirst thinking organizations do. They don't ring fence. The open the fences and let everyone in..Then close the fence! @Walu, that's my definition of a true platform. :-) *Ali Hussein* *Principal* *AHK & Associates* Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with. On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 12:40 PM, Douglas Gichuki <dgichuki@strathmore.edu> wrote:

Why not make the MPESA network interoperable? That way the Telcos have to compete on a new front.

On Mon, Jul 30, 2018, 1:09 PM Ali Hussein via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

...

Listers

This talk of Dominance is getting tiring..

Telco CEOs on the spot for pushing Safaricom Dominance narrative <https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/economy/Telcos-CEOs-on-the-spot-in-push-to-declare-Safaricom-dominant/3946234-4687434-le68q6z/index.html>

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

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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.

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