That's really what struck me most regarding this issue: it's a market, so if there is an opportunity, someone will use it. Like Equity did (although technology also had a huge role to play in halting the contraction in retail banking, I think - and probably economic growth, too). I left this comment under Steve Song's article: I think it depends what Collymore means by ‘neglect’ – if it simply means not expanding their network infrastructure, then rural areas still have the existing Safaricom infrastructure at their disposal. I don’t think that Safaricom would deliberately take down any infrastructure. I seem to remember that Celtel – at least in Uganda, possibly also here – started out by deliberately focusing on people with higher incomes. There was no big brouhaha at the time, and Safaricom then took the opportunity to invest in the low-end market. I don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with that, and accordingly, I don’t quite see why we need a ‘modest proposal’ of ‘let someone else do it’: Of course anyone else can do it. In fact, I suspect that Airtel will have to tackle those markets because unless they acquire large numbers of those low-spending customers, they won’t make money. It's also a trend that we are already seeing: voice isn't where the money will be made anymore, and Safaricom have invested quite heavily in data services and generally services targeted at the corporate sector - no poor rural cousins here. On 23 February 2011 23:23, Francis Hook <francis.hook@gmail.com> wrote:

Reminds me of the move by certain banks in the late 90s - to focus on HNW customers , raise minimun deposits to shed off low income earners....the Equity happened and suddendly the banks see the long tail end adds up to much afterall and sooon they are opening branches at every other bus stop...

Good perspective. To a certain extent this merits a review of the USF and its use.

Thanks for sharing the link.

On 23/02/2011, McTim <dogwallah@gmail.com> wrote:

...

All,

Steve Song is, as usual, on point in this article:

http://manypossibilities.net/2011/02/safaricom-a-modest-proposal/

Whiteafrican has just blogged about it as well.

http://whiteafrican.com/2011/02/21/phone-and-internet-mesh-for-african-villa...

...

I have been on the Village Telco dev list for a while, if anyone is interested, ping me offlist.

-- Cheers,

McTim "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel

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