Thanks Daktari. I read it immediately Phares sent it out. It is spot on of course with usual western world biases of the author who recklessly uses strong words like "stupid" . Indeed, there is some threshold you can go in terms of "price wars". That is why Cofek and I are not opposed to a freeze on lower MTR. That is not to say that do not have reservations on the "wrong process" of arriving at a right decision. It is about governance and not economics of price wars articulated within the Economist. Cofek has commissioned a consultancy around the subject and we expect a report in 4 weeks. I will also be meeting our counterparts in Sao Paolo between 7 - 14 July to compare notes on the telcos, energy and banking sectors. Otherwise, I have seen a serious misrepresentation of Cofek position on a paper called "The Sunday Express". Over 95% of the article is misleading even after the publisher and its editor came to chatted with me at my office. It is has no basis to making the stinging remarks attributed to me on one of the MSPs. Any of you who has not read it, please ignore it. The publisher has agreed to run my right of reply and has agreed that their write up was extremely wrong. I deeply regret the erroneous impression the article may have made and must apologize unreservedly to the MSP adversely mentioned and for no reason. On a separate matter, I am grateful to receive an invite from the Minister for 28/6 Kenya Yearbook 2010 launch. Hope to meet you then. Kind regards -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+stephen=cofek.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+stephen=cofek.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 6:56 PM To: stephen@cofek.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Price Wars Phares, Thank you. I had already seen it in the hard copy of the Economist. I hope Stephene Mutoro would have sometime to peruse through. Regards Ndemo.

http://www.economist.com/node/18836120 -- With Regards,

Phares Kariuki

| T: +254 720 406 093 | E: pkariuki@gmail.com | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares | B: http://www.kaboro.com/ |

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On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 7:29 PM, Stephen Mutoro <stephen@cofek.co.ke> wrote:

course with usual western world biases of the author who recklessly uses strong words like "stupid" . Indeed, there is some threshold you can go in terms of "price wars". That is why Cofek and I are not opposed to a freeze on lower MTR.

it isnt so much about the "price wars" or lower mtrs bleeding the companies -- in an ideal world -- they would have these price wars and still make money. It is really a case of the indian government being stupid -- i.e. they have done everything in their power to bring the sector down to its current state of dismal affairs : scams, idiotic spectrum pricing, hyper competition, ridiculous merger & acquisition rules -- you name it -- they've done it -- the telecom policy is a joke. also with the higher cost of capital -- its a rising interest rate scenario in india for the last couple of years -- the cost of accquiring new customers is much higher and perhaps higher than the return ...