I beg to differ. I think Equity has a captive market of 8m customers. If they can convince their customers to enter a seamless money network featuring Equity agents (over 10,000 countrywide), the Bank, and the mashinani supermarkets and kiosks that currently accept Equity visa cards, this could be a game changer. At a cheaper price BTW.

My only concern is that Equity are klutzes when it come to dealing with technology issues.

Success or failure will be greatly dependent on
1 - How much commission per transfer Mwangi is willing to pay agents
2 - How much money he is willing to invest in technology
That strategy of outsourcing management of IT infrastructure? Doesn't work. Only unimaginative accountants and cost cutters go for this option. Trust me. You have to pay top dollar to get top drawer service, equipment and support. When you draw up a mean, ham-fisted contract for support, whoever wins it assigns the least productive people on their roster, and your SLAs are shit. When you get problems, they are never priority, better paying clients get the gold service. Customers suffer. Its one of the reasons Airtel is stuck in a morass it cant pull out of.

My pedestrian thinking, would KCB, COOP, NBK and other banks allow Equity "Mpesa" to withdraw money from their customers accounts the same way they have allowed Mpesa to link to their customer accounts? If Equity is targeting it's existing clients then it's ok.

The main reason would be who needs another line ?

How many numbers do your friends have to keep track of on you ? We all know how hard it has been for any new entrant to get subscribers off their initial service providers(Saf & Kencell [Airtel]). Data services are always available even without activation of the voice service. You do not necessarily need a WiFi availability.

It provides a much smooth experience for simple yet effective service delivery without additional costs for a service which others have perfected. Remember voice brings about call quality issues which form a huge complaint from clients. Data only cards/devices have less issues.

Case in point. 3G modems are devices that came about as a result in the need for internet access without necessarily requiring a voice plan. ( very few complaints about the modem devices, most complaints are about data speeds & charges from the different providers ).

Calls to the CCC or help desks can be made using your regular lines as you effect commands/change settings on the separate device.

True. What is in a name! The name may change but the biz remains.

1) Equity has banking agents who can easily be converted to MVNO agents. These are the LOW HANGING fruits.
2) Equity can help finance float which has been an issue for many Safcom agents in the past.
3) Voice is NOT a priority for Equity. Nor is income/revenue from data [surfing]. It's the transfer fees.
4) Equity wants to keep the money in-house. There are BILLIONS held by customers within M-Pesa and M-Shwari at CBA. These funds can be re-deployed to Equity at low cost [low interest]. And this amount will grow.
5) Airtel [& Equity] is in all EAC [Burundi?] countries & it can help Equity transact across borders earning Equity Transaction Fees AND Forex Margin/Spread Income.
6) Quick loans [M-Shwari] at 1-2% per month! That beats 7.5% charged by CBA/Safaricom and yet getting 12-24% is not a bad deal for Equity.

For Equity this is about ADDITIONAL income... which it did not have in 2013 but will in 2014 and beyond.

Data is link not necessarily for internet access but to enable two way communication of device/phone with EQTY/Airtel. Came about in a likely scenario where entrepreneurs have opportunity to introduce devices that do not have voice capabilities but can do mobile transactions perfectly. If these devices have simple & secure interface enough for the masses to adapt to fast enough, the meteoric rise in adoption would be quite profitable to the entrepreneur(s).

Safaricom has about 18 million customers now this is 10 million more customers than Equity.It will not be a walk in the park to get over Mpesa Equity had previously partnered with Orange on Orange money which failed miserably moblie customers will not be easily swayed to change their peculiar habits .

It's all fun and games until Equity effectively requires all personal payments and transactions by customers which are worth below 25k to be done by phone and equity agents hence do away with queues in their bank halls.
..plus you don't need to use your mpesa account for this.

I don't think they want to "steal" Safaricom's customers.Maybe...just maybe...they want to de-congest their banking halls & make money from that.They could basically ensure that in 5 years you don't need to visit a bank branch for anything.All transactions can be done on your phone & at Equity agencies....while still making money from:
(1)Your savings
(2)Your loans (interest)
(3)From non-banking hall channels(with no mpesa involved).
They will greatly reduce operation costs from that too.