Senators (the real ones) want to split Safaricom

DeepInYourMind

Elder Lister
They said other players—Telkom and Airtel—operate at the mercy of Safaricom as they owe it billions of shillings. Safaricom, according to the lawmakers, controls 60 per cent data bundles business, calls and Short Message Service (SMS).

They want Safaricom split into two so mobile telephony service is regulated by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the M-Pesa division regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

He said such a move would promote order in the country and enable the industry to attract more players.



What do you think of this move? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me, because Safaricom started as an underdog and outmaneuvered Kencell to achieve its dominance.

What message does it send to local businesses? If you win in the market and become dominant, you risk regulation by govt, that is anti-competitiv

If they really want to break monopolies, why don't they start with kplc which sore-rely needs a competitor to pull up it's socks. Or are they only interested in where the money is.

I personally think mobile money interoperability and phone number portability are enough to ensure a level play ground.
 
Safaricom started as an underdog and outmaneuvered Kencell to achieve its dominance.
Wrong. Safaricom started out with an upper hand. It won the market even though its services were inferior, largely because it inherited Telcom's clientele. Making calls from safaricom to Telcom was made cheap, while making the same calls from kencell to telcom was made expensive.
 
I think its a good move, mpesa needs to be properly regulated by the CBK because it is essentially a bank product...plus they can simply register a safaricom bank and obliterate akina KCB in their own turf...its a win for safcom
I think more regulation would limit innovation in terms of financial products available to consumers
 
Wrong. Safaricom started out with an upper hand. It won the market even though its services were inferior, largely because it inherited Telcom's clientele. Making calls from safaricom to Telcom was made cheap, while making the same calls from kencell to telcom was made expensive.
Who controlled the pricing? Kencell had the superior network but stuck stubbornly to billing per minute, while saf with the inferior network introduced per second billing. I think this is what tilted the scales in favour of Safaricom
 
Who controlled the pricing? Kencell had the superior network but stuck stubbornly to billing per minute, while saf with the inferior network introduced per second billing. I think this is what tilted the scales in favour of Safaricom
When cell phones were introduced, all phones were landlines. Anyone who acquired a mobile phone would be calling a land line 95% of the time. The revenues collected from calls would be split between the originating network and the terminating network. Since Safaricom was an off-shoot of Telcom, they were charged less when their calls terminated at Telcom. This means their customers paid less. People acquiring phones or sim cards, both of which were expensive undertakings, showed preference for Safaricom because safaricom to telcom calls were cheaper than Celltel to Telcom calls.
As mobile phone numbers grew and mobile to mobile communications increased, it was still punitively expensive to call from Celltel to Safaricom, an issue that was brought before the CCK several times.
 
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I think more regulation would limit innovation in terms of financial products available to consumers
Financial product regulation is there to protect the consumer....and for the consumer to have confidence in the product....there is nothing that limits innovation. Mpesa is a bank backed product and in my view safcom should take this positively and convert that arm into a full fledged bank so thay can stop sharing their profits with CBA
 
Wrong. Safaricom started out with an upper hand. It won the market even though its services were inferior, largely because it inherited Telcom's clientele. Making calls from safaricom to Telcom was made cheap, while making the same calls from kencell to telcom was made expensive.


this is wrong. kencell focused on corporates while Safcom focused on normal wananchi, the same formula Equity bank used while akina Barclays shunned away broke people
 
this is wrong. kencell focused on corporates while Safcom focused on normal wananchi, the same formula Equity bank used while akina Barclays shunned away broke people
What do you mean that Safaricom was focusing on normal wanaichi? Does it mean Kencell was not selling to some people?
 
They should hand over Kenya Power to the military and Kenya Airways to the air force first.

In business, you either shape up or you ship out. Don't go crying that your competitor is denying you business.
hehe hio ni kama kuhamisha maiti from General Kago funeral home umpeleke lee funeral home
 
They said other players—Telkom and Airtel—operate at the mercy of Safaricom as they owe it billions of shillings. Safaricom, according to the lawmakers, controls 60 per cent data bundles business, calls and Short Message Service (SMS).

They want Safaricom split into two so mobile telephony service is regulated by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the M-Pesa division regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

He said such a move would promote order in the country and enable the industry to attract more players.



What do you think of this move? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me, because Safaricom started as an underdog and outmaneuvered Kencell to achieve its dominance.

What message does it send to local businesses? If you win in the market and become dominant, you risk regulation by govt, that is anti-competitiv

If they really want to break monopolies, why don't they start with kplc which sore-rely needs a competitor to pull up it's socks. Or are they only interested in where the money is.

I personally think mobile money interoperability and phone number portability are enough to ensure a level play ground.
And Brookside? Ama it hasn't done anything that amounts to creating a monopoly....I thought the competition authority was established to manage such
 
this is wrong. kencell focused on corporates while Safcom focused on normal wananchi, the same formula Equity bank used while akina Barclays shunned away broke people
That is the whole truth and that decision became the Waterloo for Airtel...
 
And Brookside? Ama it hasn't done anything that amounts to creating a monopoly....I thought the competition authority was established to manage such

According to UAP report, they controlled 40% of the dairy market in 2008. I don't know if they have grown further since. They are as dominant as Safaricom is in the telecom sector. They are becoming "too big to fail". Supposing Mpesa failed for a whole day, si uchumi inasimama?

 
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