@porojo - tell us more

@pierce - Who knows? Europe flights are NOT flying full (2007 they were 75%+)... and also China flights are down. KQ will suspend/cancel their direct flights to China. Add suspension of Madagascar flights (affects the Paris sector).

Greedy when others are fearful,Very fearful when others are greedy - to paraphrase WB

Dear SK,

The retrenchment of 141 staff (20% by the way,if they are now left with a staff complement of 550) by Zain shows clearly that matters are beginning to catch up with them. I think Zain is finally having to make really tough decisions about what it's doing in Kenya.

My question is: what really can they do now? If they increase tariffs,people will leave the network. Current tariffs are really break-even. For example they started Vuka,hoping to attract people into the network,but they only attracted the people who wanted to call Safaricom from Zain at 8 bob. Hence they brought in Vuka Plus (call 10 people at 3 bob) hoping to increase intra-Zain traffic. It hasn't really taken off.

Then there is Zap,but it has not kicked off properly since the launch. One would question the decision tie it in to Stanchart really (Philippe Vandebrouk again?),when Equity is so much better placed to help them inject this product with some excitement... imagine if you could load your stock-buying account with Equity thru Zap,for example.

What really can Zain KE do? For sure if they leave Safaricom we will need Government protection from Safaricom...

They should give Zain KE as an MBA case-study.

A brave and smart move by Zain to publicly address the issue before the rumor mills went overboard.

EABL is doing it too. My concern is that companies that have been postponing a decision on this for fear of a public or union backlash...will take this as their green light. It is the benefit of not being the first to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons...and gaining from the reactions you observe.