True that, but we know where the majority and loyal high spenders on phone are and where migrant budget spenders are

Nice insight. Funny to say watched. How are you watching them. Light note

That phone is great! Though the SLOOOWWW data package of Airtel is the cheapest but SLOOOWWW...

And thats the cream of population thats into IT and related tech things on net and they idle on facebook hence they need faster connections on thier phones... will they really be on a slow edge or 2G connection? go watch again!!

When Airtel unleashes their 3G... I will win coz either it will be as fast but cheaper than Safaricom OR Safaricom will drop their prices!

I love competition!

I hav observed the same thing they are either on airtel or Yu...another interesting thing I have observed most low income earners are In airtel which means as this group make money airtel will grow with them.

Lets get some facts right:

FY 2010, Safcon had total revenue of 83bn, with 63.4bn out of voice.

HY 2011, Safcon had total revenue of 47bn, with revenue of 32.5bn. Naturally, as a result of reduced calling rates, we can reasonably expect the revenue from voice to half, thus maybe a revenue of 16-20bn from voice in H2 2011.

BUT: Data in H1 2011, was already up by 7bn, compared to H1 2010. If the same trend continues, then we could see increase in data revenues compensating for decrease in voice revenues.

My expectations:
Safaricom will match, or slightly better the 2010FY results in terms of revenue. There might be slightly reduced profits due to increase in costs, e.g. advertising, admin costs. Safcom will deliver flat results.

I think if they can get away with it they should... thats business . Getting away with it is the hard part , that's why Bob and tens of senior managers are paid 7figure monthly salaries... in exchage for "supernormal profits" for shareholders... can't blame them for trying to keep their jobs + bonuses

i think Agwambo is right... does safcom really want to be protected fron Airtel... they want GoK to sanction the monopolisation of telcoms after we've come this far?

Safcom does not pay less peanuts compared with other corporates in the country. it is true they have a long payroll with few large numbers at the top and many small ones at the bottom. Still it nothing compared with the examples below.

1. BAT senior managers salaries vs. factory workers.
2. Emilio's salary (2.0m)& Raila's salary(circa 1.5m) vs. City council (taxable), AP (taxable)

Safcom are doing better than most companies / organizations of their size with respect to HR issues. They have outsourced most low end HR jobs to kenyan juakali and SMEs ie. airtime vendors, marketing (advertising agents & promoters), mpesa dealers, infrastructure (development, supplies & maintenance).
The 2nd quote is not very smart. It is uncharacteristic of Raila to be lazy in his research.

@VVS If every one is as smart as you and me then it becomes a hard sell. But that's WELL-PAID-BOB'S headache and he should work for his bonus (and job)... i'm not worried about that. When he sees no one is listening he'll just change strategy {new products; restructuring to control overheads; mergers/acquisitions; etc} I'm sure he's smarter that our politicians and they seem to have learnt to process info and make (or take back) decisions .