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Airtel quitting??
Rank: Veteran Joined: 7/5/2010 Posts: 2,061 Location: Nairobi
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sitaki.kujulikana wrote:quicksand wrote:sitaki.kujulikana wrote:quicksand wrote:pilgrimage wrote:I have never understood the marketing strategy of Airtel Kenya.I always wonder how they hope to penetrate the voice and data market especially the later with such poor coverage.All over kenya (i have travelled widely), there are only pockets of coverage and only mainly around major urban centres.If you inside the house,you will be lucky if you get anything.
Meanwhile you can get Safaricom even in a deep cave.
I went to a Airtel shop and i was told,'inakuwanga hivyo'.A friend of mine said that either Airtel have no clue what they are doing or someone is seriously sabotaging them.
..the management has ONE tool and one tool only in their arsenal. Cost Reduction. Not cost management or cost control. They attack every business problem with this. A terrible way to strategise as operations will go wrong if you don't get inventive. And when in a hole, they double down. Imagine your child gets ill, the doc says its malnutrition cause you have had him on a kale only diet; hence you need to supplement his diet with meat, milk and some beans...and you go...No!too costly! Need to reduce the kales to one meal a day! It is like that with Airtel. A good case of the king is naked when it comes to their management and this cost thing. Even a monkey can see it. A company with 6+ million subs ought to make some money...Saf has what, 23+ million? Thats four times, so being very generous, they should be able to haul in a tenth of what Saf makes surely? 3 billion is not a bad payday. Instead, Safaricom has them beat by the 15th second of each business day. Mind boggling. easy said, they seem to be doing well in their other markets, so I am sure they know one or two things about the industry as compared to say 'monkeys'  I don't know if you have ever tried selling stuff to kenyans, we at times can be peculiar beings, there is this electrical shop huko down town, and despite there being many other shops around it people still prefer to go make a queue hapo disregarding the others, despite all the shops sourcing their stuff from similar suppliers. another example is with pubs/nyama joints you might find guys struggling to get parking at an establishment while next door the other guys are near empty. sometimes it just happens, not due to brilliance or skills, people just flock to some and ignore others. ..its hyperbole chief. That said, my point remains valid. The 6+ million subscribers on their roster are very real customers...and yes, the Kenyan market is unique, challenging even but not insurmountable. Zuku guys are roughly in the same domain with fewer customers and a smaller war chest and yet they seem to eke revenue and subsistence still. The kenyan market is different from other countries, much like how we have superb internet infrastructure, our Human development more developed compared to the rest of most of Africa; As such, they should retweaked their business model to adapt to Kenya and not try to shoehorn Kenya into fitting their idea of what an African market is like. Kenyans are smart and price sensitive too. They will pick a solution that makes economic sense to them. The brand loyalty to Safaricom is not totally blind, which is why Equity got some traction with Equitel despite running on a hosted network. Finally, I have a more than common insight in the Kenya telecomms space. sawa mimi sina insight huko, I am just a keyboard/google fed analyst but is comparing zuku biashara to that of a mobile operator taking it a little bit too far especially when looking at revenues, my keyboard ninja in me tells me zuku is more specific, they target a controlled market segment unlike airtel who have to cater to non existent customers. plus if you go into a market you have your projections and if you fail to get the same you exit, ama telcom space huenda aje Sure. But they should not try that well worn line about Safaricom being a monopoly and thus the reason they can't make money. They are inflexible and the market has delivered a mighty donkey's kick to the butt. Pure management problem. There is money to be made in Kenya.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 8/25/2012 Posts: 1,826
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quicksand wrote:sitaki.kujulikana wrote:quicksand wrote:sitaki.kujulikana wrote:quicksand wrote:pilgrimage wrote:I have never understood the marketing strategy of Airtel Kenya.I always wonder how they hope to penetrate the voice and data market especially the later with such poor coverage.All over kenya (i have travelled widely), there are only pockets of coverage and only mainly around major urban centres.If you inside the house,you will be lucky if you get anything.
Meanwhile you can get Safaricom even in a deep cave.
I went to a Airtel shop and i was told,'inakuwanga hivyo'.A friend of mine said that either Airtel have no clue what they are doing or someone is seriously sabotaging them.
..the management has ONE tool and one tool only in their arsenal. Cost Reduction. Not cost management or cost control. They attack every business problem with this. A terrible way to strategise as operations will go wrong if you don't get inventive. And when in a hole, they double down. Imagine your child gets ill, the doc says its malnutrition cause you have had him on a kale only diet; hence you need to supplement his diet with meat, milk and some beans...and you go...No!too costly! Need to reduce the kales to one meal a day! It is like that with Airtel. A good case of the king is naked when it comes to their management and this cost thing. Even a monkey can see it. A company with 6+ million subs ought to make some money...Saf has what, 23+ million? Thats four times, so being very generous, they should be able to haul in a tenth of what Saf makes surely? 3 billion is not a bad payday. Instead, Safaricom has them beat by the 15th second of each business day. Mind boggling. easy said, they seem to be doing well in their other markets, so I am sure they know one or two things about the industry as compared to say 'monkeys' I don't know if you have ever tried selling stuff to kenyans, we at times can be peculiar beings, there is this electrical shop huko down town, and despite there being many other shops around it people still prefer to go make a queue hapo disregarding the others, despite all the shops sourcing their stuff from similar suppliers. another example is with pubs/nyama joints you might find guys struggling to get parking at an establishment while next door the other guys are near empty. sometimes it just happens, not due to brilliance or skills, people just flock to some and ignore others. ..its hyperbole chief. That said, my point remains valid. The 6+ million subscribers on their roster are very real customers...and yes, the Kenyan market is unique, challenging even but not insurmountable. Zuku guys are roughly in the same domain with fewer customers and a smaller war chest and yet they seem to eke revenue and subsistence still. The kenyan market is different from other countries, much like how we have superb internet infrastructure, our Human development more developed compared to the rest of most of Africa; As such, they should retweaked their business model to adapt to Kenya and not try to shoehorn Kenya into fitting their idea of what an African market is like. Kenyans are smart and price sensitive too. They will pick a solution that makes economic sense to them. The brand loyalty to Safaricom is not totally blind, which is why Equity got some traction with Equitel despite running on a hosted network. Finally, I have a more than common insight in the Kenya telecomms space. sawa mimi sina insight huko, I am just a keyboard/google fed analyst but is comparing zuku biashara to that of a mobile operator taking it a little bit too far especially when looking at revenues, my keyboard ninja in me tells me zuku is more specific, they target a controlled market segment unlike airtel who have to cater to non existent customers. plus if you go into a market you have your projections and if you fail to get the same you exit, ama telcom space huenda aje Sure. But they should not try that well worn line about Safaricom being a monopoly and thus the reason they can't make money. They are inflexible and the market has delivered a mighty donkey's kick to the butt. Pure management problem. There is money to be made in Kenya. that I agree with you, they can't blame safaricom for their issues, and of course the direction a company takes is to a good extent determined by management, that said looking at the current telcom situation in ke, airtel should be sold to a small player who will be ready to accept that small brother position. I am sure if you took the current safaricom management and swapped them with the airtel management nothing much would change, the only hope for any competitor to safcom is a major technological change in the telcoms, or safaricom just committing suicide, that's why I reckon a small player coming in and accepting that role, hoping for some change or mistake from safcom to level or take over the market, but for a big player, itakuwa ngumu, hata akina at&t ama verizon hawawezi toboa.
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Rank: Member Joined: 9/24/2010 Posts: 136 Location: Nairobi
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murchr wrote:Its simple. Airtel does well in other parts of Africa but not Kenya, reason being they dont want to invest in infrastructure hoping that the regulation will change to force safaricom to share their infrastructure. Remember the 4G debate? When Safcom bought licenses Airtel went up in arms saying the license is expensive bla bla. http://www.businessdaily.../-/3vp21uz/-/index.html
I totally agree with you.. they need to invest on infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure.. I visited someone close who is admitted in a two-story hospital at Kasarani(Nairobi) and guess what! right inside the wards, A dual-Sim phone showing no network for Airtel but Full network for safaricom.. most patients in there ARE FORCED to communicate to their loved ones and access data using safaricom and this is just one building out of the many experiencing the same within nairobi. Making money never gets boring
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,907
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Alfylavie wrote:murchr wrote:Its simple. Airtel does well in other parts of Africa but not Kenya, reason being they dont want to invest in infrastructure hoping that the regulation will change to force safaricom to share their infrastructure. Remember the 4G debate? When Safcom bought licenses Airtel went up in arms saying the license is expensive bla bla. http://www.businessdaily.../-/3vp21uz/-/index.html
I totally agree with you.. they need to invest on infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure.. I visited someone close who is admitted in a two-story hospital at Kasarani(Nairobi) and guess what! right inside the wards, A dual-Sim phone showing no network for Airtel but Full network for safaricom.. most patients in there ARE FORCED to communicate to their loved ones and access data using safaricom and this is just one building out of the many experiencing the same within nairobi. Other than sudden bleeps in Nigeria/Uganda/Kenya in 2015 (from sale of towers to Eaton), which of their subsidiaries in Africa makes real money?
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Rank: Member Joined: 5/8/2007 Posts: 709
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muganda wrote:Alfylavie wrote:murchr wrote:Its simple. Airtel does well in other parts of Africa but not Kenya, reason being they dont want to invest in infrastructure hoping that the regulation will change to force safaricom to share their infrastructure. Remember the 4G debate? When Safcom bought licenses Airtel went up in arms saying the license is expensive bla bla. http://www.businessdaily.../-/3vp21uz/-/index.html
I totally agree with you.. they need to invest on infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure.. I visited someone close who is admitted in a two-story hospital at Kasarani(Nairobi) and guess what! right inside the wards, A dual-Sim phone showing no network for Airtel but Full network for safaricom.. most patients in there ARE FORCED to communicate to their loved ones and access data using safaricom and this is just one building out of the many experiencing the same within nairobi. Other than sudden bleeps in Nigeria/Uganda/Kenya in 2015 (from sale of towers to Eaton), which of their subsidiaries in Africa makes real money? Burkina Faso Ghana Gabon Sierra Leone Chad Tanzania Congo B Zambia Madagascar Uganda Seychelles Malawi Nigeria DRC Africa HQ Niger Rwanda Airtel Africa is a subsidiary of Indian telecommunications company Airtel, that operates in 17 countries across Africa. the issue as someone said is that the indians who run airtel kenya do not want at all to invest in infrastructure, their network even along waiyaki way is pathetic.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/18/2011 Posts: 12,069 Location: Kianjokoma
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/18/2011 Posts: 12,069 Location: Kianjokoma
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Lolest! wrote:Hi Admin,
Link? Admin bana! Why delete that useful post?? OK, who here has the figures for Airtel across Africa?
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,907
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@Lolest! what does Admin have to do with the info? Annual report pg 261 shows share in profit & loss for each entity for 2016 & 2015 years - link http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/co...4-4c48-be12-26c9215209ba@faa none of those quoted countries make real money. faa wrote:muganda wrote:Alfylavie wrote:murchr wrote:Its simple. Airtel does well in other parts of Africa but not Kenya, reason being they dont want to invest in infrastructure hoping that the regulation will change to force safaricom to share their infrastructure. Remember the 4G debate? When Safcom bought licenses Airtel went up in arms saying the license is expensive bla bla. http://www.businessdaily.../-/3vp21uz/-/index.html
I totally agree with you.. they need to invest on infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure.. I visited someone close who is admitted in a two-story hospital at Kasarani(Nairobi) and guess what! right inside the wards, A dual-Sim phone showing no network for Airtel but Full network for safaricom.. most patients in there ARE FORCED to communicate to their loved ones and access data using safaricom and this is just one building out of the many experiencing the same within nairobi. Other than sudden bleeps in Nigeria/Uganda/Kenya in 2015 (from sale of towers to Eaton), which of their subsidiaries in Africa makes real money? Burkina Faso Ghana Gabon Sierra Leone Chad Tanzania Congo B Zambia Madagascar Uganda Seychelles Malawi Nigeria DRC Africa HQ Niger Rwanda Airtel Africa is a subsidiary of Indian telecommunications company Airtel, that operates in 17 countries across Africa. the issue as someone said is that the indians who run airtel kenya do not want at all to invest in infrastructure, their network even along waiyaki way is pathetic.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/23/2009 Posts: 8,083 Location: Enk are Nyirobi
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muganda wrote:@Lolest! what does Admin have to do with the info? Annual report pg 261 shows share in profit & loss for each entity for 2016 & 2015 years - link http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/co...4-4c48-be12-26c9215209ba@faa none of those quoted countries make real money. faa wrote:muganda wrote:Alfylavie wrote:murchr wrote:Its simple. Airtel does well in other parts of Africa but not Kenya, reason being they dont want to invest in infrastructure hoping that the regulation will change to force safaricom to share their infrastructure. Remember the 4G debate? When Safcom bought licenses Airtel went up in arms saying the license is expensive bla bla. http://www.businessdaily.../-/3vp21uz/-/index.html
I totally agree with you.. they need to invest on infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure.. I visited someone close who is admitted in a two-story hospital at Kasarani(Nairobi) and guess what! right inside the wards, A dual-Sim phone showing no network for Airtel but Full network for safaricom.. most patients in there ARE FORCED to communicate to their loved ones and access data using safaricom and this is just one building out of the many experiencing the same within nairobi. Other than sudden bleeps in Nigeria/Uganda/Kenya in 2015 (from sale of towers to Eaton), which of their subsidiaries in Africa makes real money? Burkina Faso Ghana Gabon Sierra Leone Chad Tanzania Congo B Zambia Madagascar Uganda Seychelles Malawi Nigeria DRC Africa HQ Niger Rwanda Airtel Africa is a subsidiary of Indian telecommunications company Airtel, that operates in 17 countries across Africa. the issue as someone said is that the indians who run airtel kenya do not want at all to invest in infrastructure, their network even along waiyaki way is pathetic. They got the strategy wrong. India is a 1B population mass market. They compete on pricing and make money. Kenya is a 40m population premium market. Safaricom provides premium services (Mpesa, 4G data, betting) and makes money. Airtel thought they were investing in a single 1B African market but Africa is 50+ different markets each with its own regulatory framework and business environment. Life is short. Live passionately.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,907
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sparkly wrote:They got the strategy wrong. India is a 1B population mass market. They compete on pricing and make money. Kenya is a 40m population premium market. Safaricom provides premium services (Mpesa, 4G data, betting) and makes money. Airtel thought they were investing in a single 1B African market but Africa is 50+ different markets each with its own regulatory framework and business environment. Now you're talking @sparkly - concise. Imagine, it may take almost 10 years for them to finally start making money in Africa http://economictimes.ind...rticleshow/55465312.cms
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