Kai said;

The problem is when you create the demand and then some World Bank money starts to compete before you can recover the cost…… …….The private sector needs the Government as a user there as well as the private companies and consumers. [Only then will the prices drop!]

Pricing I would like to assume that fair competition from government is as good as competition from other market players. The beauty of competition is in the way it forces the private sector to put a smile on the face of every consumer ;-) so as to guarantee revenue. I am convinced that a significant drop in prices results only from fierce competition and some degree of regulation. TESPOK and others fought for years to introduce competition which resulted in the current lower prices of internet and telephony services. The recent intervention of CCK on the pricing of mobile services is a case that proves that price controls may become necessary to protect consumers. For internet services, we need many ‘small scale’ providers whose products and pricing would be more market-driven and responsive to fluctuations in consumer needs. For instance, an internet user paying KShs. 6,000 per month for DSL per month is actually incurring 14 cents per minute for a 30-day month. This is a great deal for any 24 hour user who may even make money through such access to the internet. The same user would be said to incur 28 cents per minute if s/he were to use the link for an average 12 hours per day at the same monthly rate. There may be a catch here but there is a high probability that more businesses can survive on such low rates and pass such rates down to rural consumer. --- Wainaina Mungai http://www.madeinkenya.org SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

-------Original Message------- From: Joan Walumbe <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 - Statistics on Affordability -CCKInternetStudy Report Sent: 04 May '07 17:46

Thanks Fatma,

Much appreciated.

Joan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Fatma Bashir" <[email protected]> To: "Kenya ICT Action Network - KICTANet" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 1:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 - Statistics on Affordability -CCKInternetStudy Report

...

Joan,

I dont have statistics but working in the education sector, I see what KDN sees in the schools, schools will be the incubation ground for the demand for ICT in the rural areas (60% of schools are in rural areas). In about a year and a half years time the picture will start changing as high school graduates will be computer savvy and naturally opt to continue pursuing interests ranging from search of opportunities for enterpreneurship to formal job hunting using the internet or just keeping intouch!.

Further more when we look at schools and their facilities, they can easily become the information centres for the communities around them and also offer affordable capacity building to the parents of the students nearby. Then they will start to look for ways to make some money and the international/local content picture will start to swing in our favor.

Imagine one day you will go online and order your chopped sukuma wiki and packet of carrots from the local mama mbogo outside your estate, she will deliver to your house you will pay her on your way back home or GOd knows even online?. its the form form leaver who will have designed the website for her and its the nearby school that will have taught her computer 101.

whats missing is the segment that should be dealing with Capacity Building in an informal way or even sensitizing and awareness ( ie we dont have to attend college proper we can just go to the neighbourhood place and learn some basics) I think that this is where the Lag might be felt by the likes of KDN...and others.

Fatma

----- Original Message ----- From: "Joan Walumbe" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 10:26 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 - Statistics on Affordability - CCKInternetStudy Report

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Walu,

I agree with you that affordablity is a factor especially for rural communities when it comes to access to the internet. But I think that lack of awareness is an even bigger factor. It's fine for the urban folk (who already recognise the benefits to the internet etc.) taking a short break in shags to have the internet access when back home, but it there is no demand for the internet among the residents what is the point?

So does KDN enter a market and then hope to create demand or is their a market that demands the service or is it a little of both?

I understand that Kai would not be venturing into the rural areas if it did not make any financial sense.  Can anyone provide some info/statistics on demand for internet access in rural areas?

Joan Walumbe

----- Original Message ----- From: "John Walubengo" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 9:01 AM Subject: [kictanet] Day 5 - Statistics on Affordability - CCK InternetStudy Report

Day 5- Statistics on Affordability.

I acknowledge an interesting thread filtering in on Trust relationships b/w IGOs/ISPs...feel  free to continue contributing on that as well as on today's theme on affordability (multi-tasking encouraged by internet technologies ...)

and just to pick up from Kai's projection of KDN fiber hitting Bungoma in early August 2007.  This would be quite a welcome and timely development, but at what cost to the consumer? To  what extend will the (internet) services be affordable to the rural/average communities?

Affordability is a subjective term gven that what is considered cheap by the Bill Gates of  this world is probably not so for the average Kenyan on the street.  In trying to get an  objective measurement for affordability, the Report pegged it on the national average  incomes.  In other words, if the monthly average income in Kenya is around 100USD and if the  average monthly cost for internet access is also around 100USD then obviously the average Kenyan will not bother with accessing the Internet - it just becomes way beyond their means  or too expensive or not affordable.

The report indicated that access through the more convenient Internet Dial-up/Desktop  services costed over 200% the average incomes (too expensive), while the same access through  mobile phones was costing just 8% of the average incomes (quite affordable).  What needs to  be done in order to make Internet Services more afforable to Kenyans?

1 day deliberation on this one.

walu.

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