How are you able to tell that you are calling at the reduced rate ? Hook me up!!

@tylerkay & @thajoeblog... Mein! Niliwahi Supa rate jana joh... Nilikuwa janta downtown afte kitu ka' 2:3o hivi na wasee nilikuwa na-kol viproper... 4bob msee na sio Sato!!!

Nimeshow maboy wangu wacheck hii story juu ya vile madollari zimekuwa less so nikiwahi low rates na hawa maprovider siwachi... Safcom wanakaa wamejanjaruka kiasi, so mambo kwetu au sio??

Haiya! Kumekujwo!

@kenmac, right on the money. If you set up Cell Broadcasting Services on your phone, you can view a log of all available rates over a day.

It's probable but virtually impossible to obtain a rate of 3/=, in Nairobi town centre during the day. And Safaricom uses the 'probability' to appear 'cheap' - face it!

This 'dynamic discounting' was first launched in Ghana by MTN/Ericcson and has won many awards. However, if providers were transparent (to their detriment), they'd actually publish the average rate on the service which for Safaricom I guesstimate at 6.**

Safaricom's strategy is not cost - that is YU's domain.

Yu to yu cost 0.50cents after 2mins on noki tariff till midnight. Why should anyone be excited calling saf to saf @4bob?

@chris79, try talking to someone for 40-60mins on saf to saf and you will know why people encourage their girlfriends, clandes, wives, parents, siblings & close friends whom they communicate with frequently to get a yu or zain simcard. The cost of phone calls should be kept low by all means necessary, whether your phone book is 90% saf or zain

>> @ muganda, that's quite insightful...but its inevitable for motorola users to continue hitting 155 since they don't have the cell broadcast facility. About the call rates, saf is certainly feeling the heat from Yu. While saf supa ongea rates apply to saf calls only, Yu's amua is across all networks. secondly the saf's main domain_data has been infiltrated by Yu even before they launch their own modems. everyone I know seems to own an unlocked saf modem using a Yu line...The ingenious saf marketing department needs to put on their thinking caps and do some damage control. until obo pay lands safcom can continue overcharging us with their mpesa.

@chris, everyone has a right to chose. If your choice is to dial *155# before making a phone call or checking your cell broadcast, so be it. As you celebrate calling @4bob, there are people who feel nothing because they have been used to calling @0.50cents or 3bob ANYTIME regardless of what the cell broadcast says

According to a number of industry insiders, Safcom is feeling the heat from Yu, especially on voice calls and data.

Safcom have been arguing that the competitors can not sustain the price war but Yu is operating on the high volumes-low margin-low overheads Indian business model, therefore able to sustain the rates.

It will get very interesting after Zain takeover by Bharti, another Indian giant and number portability is implemented.

just a thought, what would happen if Yu, teamed up with the phone makers i.e samsung etc and offered to replace low-end handsets for dualsim handsets. that would enable people to retain their safcom line but still use Yu for making calls. Inspite of the initial cost to Yu, i think it will be a winning strategy in the long-run before number portability is introduced.