Cooks, thats really interesting. I looked up contention ratios and globally isps that earn 15% EBITDA have 50:1 ratios. AK is earning 45%.....doesnt add up.

cooks, only one fatal flaw in your logic mate...."they retained customers"

(Perhaps thats why their main shareholders are busy selling their holdings?)

Id rather go with my 30% with a chance of increasing connections...if AK's shareholders dont have faith in their own company, who am I to go drown there....

Note also from ComputerWorld Forum
KDN Butterfly allegedly dropped by 90 percent and Access Kenya doubled subscribers bandwidth at the same cost.

You cannot do this if your pricing is optimum - you must have a lot of room. I'd say Access can only focus on customer retention - hey days may be over. Key company that's positioned itself well for now is KDN who's providing backhaul [Nbi-Msa] to almost everyone. And a number of Kenyan telecom companies go down when their cables are cut.

Id too say..... Kularaha go for it...and report/advertise here ..youll be amazed at the uptake...that is if you meet the three goals stated in your initial post
realistic pricing et al.

"new price discovery will take place"

this is what is scaring the living daylights out of established ISPs.

Muganda, where are these forums?

Jameni - There are so many other factors you are missing...

1) Licensing costs. Annual & upfront e.g. The idiots at CCK want $25mn for 3G services. No wonder only safcom provides 3G. Orange is testing it but only through 31 Dec 2009.

2) Infrastructure costs. Even base stations cost lotsa chumz if you cover an area. Add install costs, etc (unless your client pays). The trend is towards cheap or FREE equipment. See Zuku offer where 3k is for install but free equipment. Or safaricom's free modems.

3) Access Fees. Did you know that NCC charges you to access homes using fibre? Or any time you 'dig' on a street, you have to toa mbecha? And this is not even the 'chai'.

AK has built up the network over a few years. Safaricom is using their existing towers (not so much fibre) to expand their reach. Zain & Telkom/Orange are following Safaricom's lead.

I am not sure what the strategy from Sovaya, Tangerine or InstaConnect is lakini they are in for a tough fight.

BTW, all said & done, I think the wireless carriers (own network), KDN & those with their own cable system (Zuku & AK) will be the last ones standing!

@ VituVingiSana

The infrastructure and access costs are only for PDNOs and not ISP i.e. KDN, Jamii, Communications Solutions Ltd (AccessKenya) et all. License allows them to put up infrastructure which ISPs use to offer service.

@ KulaRaha

The costs to run an ISP are

*Yearly license fee to CCK
*Monthly bandwidth charge
*Monthly loop charge for every client on your network
*Monthly server hosting/data centre (Disaster recovery)charges
*42u rack minimum monthly power charges
*Annual KENIC membership
*Office expenses
*e.t.c.

@ KulaRaha

My username at gmail