@Wazuans,now that they are letting the cat out tomorrow and CCK is set to lower the interconnection fees later this year are they likely to go the telkom way by axing part/more of the workforce?

Anyone with numbers about the call rates in other parts of Africa and possibly India compared to Kenya. This should give us a feeling about whether our rates are the lowest. Obviously there are other factors to consider such as the country’s GDP per capita, but we cam leave out the developed countries in the analysis.

In many 'developed' countries calling rates are very, very low if you buy 1 month's service.

My cousin in USA tells me he pays $60 [all taxes included] for unlimited calls to any USA network, unlimited SMS to any USA network & 2Gbs of data!!!

Apparently in India, Airtel charges less than Rs1 [KShs 2] per minute so when we pay 3/- we are 50% higher!

It appears we are paying dearly for data. I think after interconnection reductions (which only affects voice), our voice rates are relatively low. I spend about about US$10 in a couple of days when using safcom broadband..

VVS true on the infrastructure costs.
However,the mobile industry took off in year 2000 in Kenya's case unlike Singapore where its been in operation for long.Most mobile companies have built on infrastructure from Zero to the current case where we have ,clear calls,sms,mms,3g internet,MPESA,Mpesa agents in your estate,paybill etc.All these costs a lot of money.
I just think they want to recoup their investment money TODAY as opposed to slowly over the next 10yrs.
I think the same goes for Fibre Optic investments in Kenya and why Kenyan ISPs don't want to lower costs today.

These comparison does not factor in the cost of doing business.In India energy cost are lower and government is willing to offer incentives for companies venturing into rural areas secondly by reducing to that level the growth of the industry in that country is slower which has even started to affect the quality of service.

In USA the penetration rate is more than 80% compare to kenyas 50% then the cost of doing business their is also low given that the economy in most cases is predictable unlike here in kenya.

I think currently we have only one 3G operator this shows how costly it is to put up such infrastructure now how do you think this companies will break even if they were to charge the same price as established market.