Airtel Enters Rwanda Market

Indian telecoms group Bharti Airtel has announced it has secured a licence to provide 2G and 3G cellular services in Rwanda, The New Times reports. 

The company plans to invest over USD100 million over the next three years, including USD30 million for the purchase of the operating licence. 

It aims to bring ‘affordable services and innovative products’ to the market, and plans to expand its wireless broadband network to all major towns across the country.

 In June 2010 Bharti Airtel acquired the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain Group, in a deal valued at USD10.7 billion. The company took over Zain’s operations in 15 countries, including Malawi, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

Bharti will join two other mobile operators in the market: South Africa-based MTN Rwanda, which had a total of 2.794 million mobile subscribers at the end of June 2011; and Millicom Rwanda (Tigo), which is majority-owned by Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular and had a subscriber base of over 812,000 at the same date. A third operator, Rwandatel, had its mobile licence revoked in April 2011, after the company failed to meet licence obligations, such as coverage, quality of service and planned investment targets. Rwandatel is 80% owned by Libyan government investment vehicle LAP Green Networks, although telecoms regulator RURA said the decision to cancel its mobile licence had nothing to do with enforcing a United Nations (UN) resolution to impose sanctions on Libya, including the freezing of its assets, following unrest in the North African nation.

Safaricom Apologizes Over Network Interruption

Kenyan operator Safaricom has apologised to its customers for a hitch that has affected its subscribers' ability to make calls or send SMSes since 01 September. 


The fault has meant that some subscribers' calls are going through only after several attempts, while SMSes are not reaching the intended recipients immediately but remaining pending for some time.


The incidence of these has been random and intermittent across the network. CEO Bob Collymore apologised for the inconvenience this has caused to customers and assured them that the situation is being closely monitored and prioritised to ensure services resume as soon as possible. 

New 4G Rules Favour Safaricom Over Other Networks

The government has changed the telecommunication licensing rules in a way that promises to lower the cost of acquiring high-speed delivery platforms and give one operator control of the market.

The new rules that among other things requires those bidding for the 4G spectrum licence is hinged on the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) model and are aimed at avoiding the battle over the pricing that dogged the issuance of the 3G licences.

Tender rules that were published on Tuesday indicate that unlike in the past when the licence was awarded to each operator, the 4G will be controlled by a consortium of players who must have at least 20 per cent local ownership.

The requirement locks out Airtel and Essar's Yu, leaving Safaricom and Telkom Kenya in the race for the tender.

The two are the only holders of the Network Facilities Provider Tier 1 category (the technical reference to mobile phone operators' licence) and with a 20 per cent local shareholding.

The government, through Treasury, has 49 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya while Safaricom is owned 40 per cent by the UK's Vodafone, 35 per cent by the Government of Kenya and 25 per cent by the public through the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

Airtel Kenya has a five per cent local ownership, after businessman Naushad Merali - the sole local partner -- sold 15 per cent of his stake in the firm last year.

Essar's Yu is 100 per cent owned by India's Essar Communications, which bought the 20 per cent stake that local firms Capital Africa, CrossLink and Startnet held last year for an undisclosed sum.

Rene Meza, the Airtel managing director, questioned the transparency of the tendering process and promised that his firm will be seeking clarification, especially on the 20 per cent rule as Airtel intends to fully participate in the tendering process.

"We will seek clarification on the requirement of 20 per cent ownership. We believe it is sufficient that an operator is licensed," said Mr Meza. "Because there is no structure for the tender proposal, evaluation of the bids by the Ministry of Information may be subjective to the extent that undermines transparency and fairness."

4G refers to the fourth generation of wireless telecommunication technology with a larger capacity to deliver data and facilitate high end of market services such as video conferencing and gaming.

Kenya's telecom operators see ownership of the technology as critical to future revenue growth with the continued decline in earnings from the voice business.

Prospective bidders are also questioning the requirement that the government becomes part of the consortia that will be competing for the 4G licence while at the same time participate in evaluation of the tenders. [Read: State to withhold licence for 4G frequency rollout]

On Thursday, the government said it will not bend the 20 per cent local ownership rule, arguing that Yu and Airtel chose to sidestep the local shareholding requirement.

"The two don't meet the 20 per cent rule and do not have national infrastructure that can be upgraded to 4G," said Bitange Ndemo, the Information permanent secretary.

Dr Ndemo said the 20 per cent rule is a policy requirement that Airtel and Yu should make an effort to comply with.

People familiar with the policy position on the matter said the ultimate goal of the tendering is to open a window for the government to ride on operators with national coverage to reduce the cost and time of deploying the 4G network in readiness for use in e-voting in 2012.

"An individual firm will have to spend not less than $4 billion to roll out the infrastructure but the model we have proposed will cost an average of $100 million and take less time," said our source.

Telecoms sector ownership rules require foreign companies to have a 20 per cent local shareholding.

It, however, gives foreign investors three year grace period to look for suitable partners.

Econet Wirelesss International, which held the third mobile license was the first beneficiary of this rule that helped it survive a protracted court battle with its local partners, the Kenya National Federation of Farmers.

Econet ultimately sold its shares to Essar Communication, a subsidiary of India's Essar Global four years ago.

He acquired and immediately sold the Vivendi stake in 2004 at $250 million remaining with his 40 per cent.

Kuwait's MTC then bought Celtel out of 16 African countries in 2005 and three years later, Mr Merali sold half of his stake to Zain putting 80 per cent of the firm in foreign hands.

Last year, Mr Merali sought exemption and was allowed to sell an additional 15 per cent of his stake - a move that has now come back to Bharti Airtel, the current owners.

The tender specifications have also locked out infrastructure providers such as Kenya Data Networks, AccessKenya, Jamii and Wananchi Group who do not fall within the licence category specified on the tender notice.

Joshua Chepkwony, the chairman of the Telecommunication Network Operators said that while having an open access 4G network was positive, the manner in which the tender document has been structured shows that the government has a pre-determined candidate.

"There is need to call for a stakeholders meeting to explain the desired composition of the consortium because as it is the tender document locks out operators who are not in the tier 1 category but fall within the telecoms ecosystem," he said.

The LTE -- commonly known as 4G --offers subscribers access to mobile internet at much faster speeds, making it a cutting edge tool for companies offering their services on the medium.

The government says it will offer 4G license to a consortium of players that will implement and manage it to avert disputes encountered with the issuance of the 3G licences to the late entrants.

Safaricom paid $25 million for the 3G license fee, only for the government to lower the fee to $10 million for Airtel and Telkom Kenya or 60 per cent less than Safaricom.

Under the new model, the consortium members will be composed of government (the owner of the national spectrum), equipment suppliers such as Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson who must team up with telecommunication firms such as Safaricom, Telkom Kenya for expertise and equipment needed for the rollout.

The move comes as mobile operators shift their focus to data, with competition in the voice segments getting stiff and revenue starting to decline with deep tariff cuts that have since August last year lowered the cost of voice calls by 50 per cent.

Safaricom Plans Exchanging Fake Phones at a Discount

Safaricom is considering offering discounted phones to its subscribers who own counterfeit phones ahead of a deadline to switch them off mobile networks.

In a bid to stifle the thriving counterfeit phones trade in the country, the Communications Commission of Kenya has ordered mobile phone operators to switch off all subscribers who are using fake phones from their networks.

Safaricom now says it may offer those subscribers a chance to own genuine handsets at affordable prices. "Switching off is not the solution," Safaricom Head of Consumer Business, Peter Arina, told The Star. The company has admitted to having about 800,000 subscribers using unidentifiable or unverifiable phones.

Typically, a network operator is able to see a phone's IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number and its unique 10-digit Mobile Identification number. "The first thing is we are going to go to our network and identify them, then we are going to communicate with them," Arina said "We have to let them know, by the way, that phone you have is not genuine or valid for this network."

Safaricom will then offer the subscribers the opportunity to acquire genuine handsets at an affordable price. The company is the also the country's largest retailer of mobile phones. "We will tell them, you can come to the [Safaricom] shop with that particular number and we will give you a discount on a phone," Arina added. "But you have to come with that number that we contacted you with."

By offering to migrate counterfeit phone owners to genuine handsets, the company may strike a crippling blow to the fake phone industry as the majority of subscribers are on its network. Arina said however that Safaricom could not do it alone and would go ahead to meet with the regulator on September 9.

CCK has reiterated that by the end of September operators will have to implement solutions to remove fake phone users from their networks.

Wananchi Launches Wi-Fi In Nairobi

Wananchi Group in collaboration with Google and Aptilo Networks announced the launch of the Wazi Wi-Fi service in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The network already delivers high-speed internet access at Nairobi's Junction Shopping Mall area. The service is free for the first ten minutes of use per day on each device. 

Users can then purchase a single day pass for KES 50 per device or a monthly pass for KES 500. Customers can pay for the service online using credit cards or via local mobile money services including M-Pesa, Airtel Money and PesaPal. Wazi Wi-Fi uses the Aptilo Service Management Platform for service management and policy control and is delivered via Aptilo Cloud Services, a hosted platform.

Wananchi said it's in talks with local businesses on expansion plans, and the company sees opportunities to use Wi-Fi technology for mobile data offloading and providing high-speed unmetered access away from home.

Uganda Has Largest Number of Fake Nokia Phones in East Africa

Uganda has the highest number of substandard mobile phone devices in East Africa, The Daily Monitor reported.

Analysts blamed the delayed enactment of the anti-counterfeit law by the county's parliament.

Kenneth Oyolla, Nokia general manager for East and Southern Africa, said 30 percent of all mobile phones sold in Uganda are counterfeits, compared with 10 percent in Kenya.

Nokia loses about USD 15 million monthly in the Kenyan market while the figures are higher in Uganda and Tanzania, he said.

The Kenyan government passed an anti-counterfeit law in June 2010 that provides for anyone caught selling counterfeits to pay three times the retail value of the device and up to five years in jail if implicated again.

Oyolla said the law has reduced trade in counterfeits in Kenya and should be replicated in all EAC countries as it is a common market.

Traders dealing in counterfeits can easily cross to other countries in the region where there is no deterrent law, he said. A genuine E71 costs USD 230 while the fake one goes for about USD 50.

Uganda's anti-counterfeit bill was not passed into law after the eighth Parliament closed before the bill's second reading.

Oyolla, who was speaking at the launch of the Nokia 101 and Nokia 100 mobile handsets in Nairobi, said the firm has partnered with retailers in the sale of genuine devices as one of the ways to reduce revenue loss.

Airtel Kenya Launches Quiz Cash Give Away

Airtel Kenya has launched a promotion that will see one customer win KES 100,000 daily for 90 days.

Under the name Airtel Cashmania, customers can answer questions and be entered into a daily draw for a chance to win the cash prize.

For every correct answer a customer sends, the customer will receive 20 chances or more. For every incorrect answer the customer will receive 10 chances.

To participate in the promotion customers need to send a SMS with their first name to the short code 888. Every SMS is charged at KES 25.

A similar competition was launched by Airtel Uganda last month dub be "Kyaba Too Good!

CCK Gives KES 2.5 Million Towards Famine Relief

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has contributed KES 2.5million towards the Kenyans for Kenya famine relief kitty.

CCK's Director of Finance and Accounts Peris Nkonge said CCK was happy to join other corporate organizations in assisting fellow countrymen who are in dire need of food aid in Northern Kenya.

Kenyans for Kenyans is an initiative of the Kenya Red Cross in conjunction with the Kenya Commercial Bank, Safaricom Foundation and the Media Owners Association aimed at raising funds to feed Kenyans in the north of the country.

The initiative, which wound up on 27 August, raised more than KES 600 million through contributions from corporate Kenya, civil society and Kenyans of all walks of life.

79% of SIM's In Kenya Get Registered

The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) announced that 79 percent of SIM cards have been registered since this was made a requirement last year to curb mobile phone crime. 

Acting Director General Francis Wangusi said this was an achievement, especially as there is no law in place to enforce it. He said the regulator believes m-transactions are going to help a lot, because unless customers register, they will not be able to carry out m-transactions on any of network.

KDN Appeals Court Verdict Over YU Interconnectivity

Kenya Data Networks (KDN) has taken steps to overturn a May 2011 court order which prevented it from switching off mobile phone operator Essar Telecom Kenya’s backhaul transmission connectivity.

KDN has argued that the order made on 25 May by Justice Muga Apondi is injurious, as it forces the wholesale operator to continue providing the cellco – which operates under the ‘Yu’ brand name – services which are no longer being paid for.

The debt owed to KDN currently stands at around KES133 million (USD1.4 million), and is increasing on a monthly basis. In legal papers filed last week, KDN stated: ‘Yu has been unable to even pay the undisputed amount as required under the agreement showing their unwillingness to meet their part of the bargain’.

Nairobi-based KDN has claimed that, as a result of Yu’s non-payment, it is currently operating at a loss.

Orange Launches 3G Network In Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa

Telkom Kenya (Orange) has announced that its long-awaited 3G network has launched commercially in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, with plans for additional regional deployments as demand for data-related services increases.


The KES4 billion (USD42.6 million) network deployment will offer subscribers theoretical download speeds of 21Mbps, and CEO Mickael Ghossein has described it as Kenya’s ‘best-in-class network’. 


Meanwhile, residential users will also be able to benefit from 3G connectivity, as Telkom has unveiled a new version of its ‘Internet Everywhere’ modem which supports the higher speeds; the new modem will retail for KES6,999. A shared Wi-Fi router for business users has been introduced simultaneously, allowing between six and ten users to connect to Telkom’s 3G network at any one time.

Essar Denies It Is Selling Off Yu

Indian conglomerate the Essar Group has denied international media reports suggesting that it is looking to sell off its 70% stake in Kenyan mobile operator Essar Telecom Kenya (ETK), which operates under the ‘Yu’ brand.

The Essar Group hit back at the claims – which originated with India’s Economic Times earlier this week – commenting: ‘Essar remains committed to the African market and is satisfied with its operations in Kenya. It is not evaluating any sell off options’.

The original report coincided with the Essar Group’s admission that it has pulled out of a long-standing agreement to acquire telecoms assets in Uganda and the Republic of Congo. An unnamed source, with knowledge of the matter, suggested that the Indian firm no longer viewed telecoms as a core strategic interest.

Speculation was rife that South African telecoms giant MTN – a company with a long-held interest in securing a foothold the Kenyan wireless sector – was interested in buying out ETK. MTN is now believed to have distanced itself from the rumours.

Telkom Kenya Launches Domestic Broadband Services

Telkom Kenya has confirmed that it has launched fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services in Muthaiga and Parklands, two of Nairobi’s most affluent suburbs. 

Telkom claimed that transmission speeds of up to 8Mbps are now available to subscribers. The service will reportedly be extended to other areas in due course, with triple-play services mooted by end-2011, pending negotiations with TV content providers. 

New double-play tariffs start at KES2,999 per month (USD34.7), rising incrementally to KES6,500. The premium package includes 2,000 free fixed line minutes, and an additional 3,500 mobile minutes.

Telkom Kenya CEO Mickael Ghossein commented: ‘By integrating our copper and fibre infrastructure, our new bouquet of ‘Orange Double-Play’ offers that we are unveiling today, are undoubtedly set to exceed the voice and data communication expectations of our customers. With speeds of up to 8Mbps, we now have a network easily scalable to transmit video signals, just like in developed countries. We are already in talks with partners that will see Orange introduce triple-play services in the near future. Today, we are launching Orange Double-Play to serve residents and businesses in Muthaiga and its environs; however we will soon roll this out further afield into other areas. We have now achieved our dream of delivering true broadband to Kenyan homes’.

If Orange does launch triple-play as planned, it will go head-to-head with the Wananchi Group which launched its own long-awaited triple-play service in December 2010, under the Zuku brand. The fibre package went live in the districts of Kileleshwa, Kilimani, Lavington and Hurligham. Fibre rollout to the remainder of Nairobi and Mombasa is scheduled to be completed during the second half of 2011, whilst Tanzania and Uganda have been mooted for subsequent connectivity. Wananchi intends to pass one million homes in East Africa by 2015.

MTN Rebrands UUNet As It Takes On Kenya Market

South African telecoms giant MTN has formally announced its presence in the Kenyan broadband market, two years after acquiring a 60% stake in ailing corporate operator UUNet.

The re-branding of UUNet to MTN Business Kenya looks set to renew rivalry in the corporate data market, a marketplace in which UUNet’s fortunes have declined drastically in recent years.

Internet service providers AccessKenya and Kenya Data Networks have absorbed much of UUNet’s corporate business since 2008, whilst wireless operators Telkom Kenya and Safaricom have both embraced the relatively untapped residential broadband market in a bid to offset declining wireless revenues.

Tom Omariba, managing director of MTN Business Kenya commented: ‘An array of key structures and network transitions has been implemented to deliver standardised service and seamless integration for customers culminating in the official name-change, MTN Business Kenya’.

Dismissing speculation that MTN would try to insinuate itself into the residential market, Omariba continued: ‘You cannot be everything to all customers. We have to look at our strengths and choose which area we can serve. If you try and serve both markets, you will suffer ... that is the experience elsewhere’. MTN Business Kenya’s strategy is expected to involve a substantial cash injection, as well as providing the necessary technical expertise to strengthen its data business and grow its meagre corporate subscriber base, which MTN reported has dwindled to just 700 customers.

Access Kenya extends WiMAX To Nyer, Nanyuki

AccessKenya has announced that it has expanded its WiMAX network to the towns of Nyeri, Nanyuki and Mukurwe-ini in central Kenya.

The company said that there have been numerous requests for its services in these areas, with AccessKenya identifying sufficient commercial potential in the region. New customers will benefit from Layer 2 and Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), inter-branch connectivity, MPLS and other value-added services, all of which will be linked to AccessKenya's backbone. In 2009 AccessKenya expanded its WiMAX network from Nairobi and Mombasa to Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu in order to meet the growing demand for its services.

AccessKenya had signed up 3,000 residential customers during 2009, and is expecting to reach 7,000 by end-2010. Corporate leased-line connections increased from 2,550 to 3,150 during 2009. In August 2010 AccessKenya claimed that it had a 42% share of corporate customers.

Access Increases Internet Speeds As it Reacts to Telkom Kenya Action

ISP AccessKenya has announced that it has doubled its residential broadband speeds for all subscribers to its Access@Home service; the speeds apply to subscribers of its Value, Premium and Elite packages.

Further, AccessKenya has confirmed that for the last quarter of 2010, any new customers signing up to Access@Home for a three month period will receive an additional month for free. As previously reported on CommsUpdate, AccessKenya recently announced that its turnover dropped by 17.5% to KES876 million (USD10.38 million) in 1H10, after its strategy of increasing bandwidth but freezing prices severely affected its bottom line.

This week rival telco Telkom Kenya doubled customers download limits, as part of a month-long promotion.

Jonathan Somen, managing director of AccessKenya commented: ‘As we grow and get more subscribers, we will continue to work on offering them more value and more speed. The market told us that they wanted a guaranteed service but with more bandwidth. Our new improved offerings keep the basic benefits of buying guaranteed speeds, while at the same time offering customers much more speed for the same money. Access@Home offers a service to our customers completely unlike any other residential internet offering in the market. Firstly, we offer customers a guaranteed high speed at a very affordable and fixed price. This is backed up with excellent levels of service and absolutely no data caps - effectively a corporate-style guaranteed service for users at home. Our new speeds come with glad tidings for our 4,000 residential clients. They shall enjoy these increased speeds at no extra cost from the comfort of their homes’.

Safaricom Plans to Increase Maximum Cash Transfer

CONVERGED communication solutions provider Safaricom has announced plans to increase its deposits in its M-Pesa services, with the aim of enabling its customers to transact larger amounts of money.

The operator plans to increase the maximum amount that a subscriber can transact in a day to
US$ 650, up from the current US$450.

Outgoing Safaricom Chief Executive officer Michael Joseph said the company intends to split M-Pesa into two arms, one for customer-to-customer (C2C) transactions, and the other for customer-to-business (C2B) transactions.

Joseph said the company forwarded the proposed upgrade of its M-Pesa money transfer service facility to the Kenyan Central Bank (CBK), and would commence implementing it as soon as CBK okayed the changes.

He said they had realised that some of the transactions require customers to transfer larger amounts than the current limit of US$450. Safaricom also plans to upgrade the service to link it with the Internet, a move that is expected to enable customers to make M-Pesa transactions online. Currently, transactions are only made through mobile handsets.

Joseph said Safaricom would strive to remain a market leader in the data segment, with M-Pesa remaining its most formidable weapon.

“M-Pesa has become more than just a marketing tool for us in providing services to our subscribers conveniently,” he said.

Close to 300 companies have partnered with Safaricom to settle bills via M-Pesa. Joseph revealed that they were in talks with the CBK for permission to increase the money transfer limits on M-Pesa, which is currently capped at Sh35 000 per transaction.

“We want to take the maximum amount you can transact to Sh50 000 (US$650) and also lower the minimum amount, but all that is subject to CBK approval,” he said without giving a clear timeline on when that would happen.

Adoption of mobile banking has been taking root in the country to speed up access to financial services and reach the un-banked population.

“We are moving close to €150 million (Sh16.5 billion) a day; that’s an incredible amount of money. We are moving more money in a month than what Western Union does,” he said.

Joseph said the mobile market is gearing for a major battle in the control of the customer numbers.
“It is not really a price war; it’s a total war, which Safaricom intends to win not by an inch, or a foot but by a long mile,” Joseph said.

Safaricom’s dominance in the mobile industry has come under pressure by the entrance of Bharti Airtel, Zain Africa’s new shareholders, who have made it clear they are out to attain leadership in the next three to four years.

Telkom Kenya Cuts Broadband Rates By 50%

Telkom Kenya has announced that it has reduced broadband costs by 50% as part of a one-month promotion. The telco claims that the new promotion has been informed by market research pointing to an increase in demand amongst students and young professionals. Telkom Kenya CEO Mickael Ghossein commented: ‘If you were spending KES150 (USD1.78) to buy an internet bundle of 50MB you will now be able to get 100MB for the same amount; for KES850, you will get 1000MB instead of the 500MB that you got previously’. Industry insiders view the move as an attempt to secure its leadership in the burgeoning broadband market. Based on retaliatory trends exhibited in the past, rival Safaricom, which recently entered the Kenyan broadband market, is expected to announce a similar move in the near future.

In other news, Telkom’s move has increased the pressure on Kenya’s long-standing internet provider AccessKenya, which has focused on corporate leased lines and high-end residential customers since its inception. AccessKenya announced this week that its turnover dropped by 17.5% to KES876 million at the end of 1H10; this year the firm opted to increase bandwidth capacity to its customers but freeze its prices. A company spokesperson said that growth of the firm's revenues would depend on ‘strong growth in both the corporate and residential customer base, driven by higher speeds and lower costs offered to customers’. However, Telkom’s move suggests that if AccessKenya does lower its charges, its income may well be diminished even further. According to AccessKernya, the corporate leased line segment is currently its core source of income, accounting for 92% of the firm's revenues in 1H10.

Competitors Follow Warid as Price War Rages In Uganda

Graphic: New Vision

ZAIN, MTN and Uganda Telecom yesterday announced a reduction in call rates as the tariff war took a new front in Uganda, one of Africa’s fiercest telecom markets.  Last week, Warid drew first blood by dropping call rates to sh5 per second across all networks.  The move by Warid set the stage for a furious price war as the telecom firms tried to outpace each other.

On Tuesday, MTN and UTL declared lower call rates between sh4 to sh5. But Zain quickly outmaneuvered the three by announcing sh3 per second to all networks, including Zain to Zain. It now means that Zain is the cheapest operator, charging sh180 (USD0.082) per minute to all networks. The offer applies to both prepaid and postpaid customers.

Zain
Levi Nyakundi, the Zain marketing manager for usage and retention, said the drop was permanent.  “It is a 66% price drop on the most popular tariff plan - Zain Flexi - which has been sh9 on-net and sh11 off-network,” said Nyakundi.

It was expected that Zain, bought by India's Bharti Airtel, would adopt a drastic pricing model largely on heavily discounted call charges, as happened in Kenya about two months ago, where calls are as cheap as sh81 (Ksh3).

 Uganda Telecom
Uganda Telecom had also turned the barrels to the other operators, announcing a rate of sh4 for calls from UTL to UTL and sh5 for calls to other networks.  According to a statement from UTL’s chief marketing officer, Mohamadou Konkobo, UTL customers will now spend a maximum of sh240 to make a call within the network and a maximum of sh300 to call other networks.

MTN
On its part, MTN announced a “celebration promotion” at sh3 per second on the per-second billing tariff plan and sh160 for calls within the MTN Yellowmax tariff plan. Isaac Nsereko, the MTN chief marketing officer, explained that clients on the per-minute plan will pay sh320 per minute for the first 10 minutes of the day. For the rest of the day, calls will cost sh160 within the MTN network.

On the MTN per-second tariff plan, customers will pay sh6 for the first five minutes, then sh3 per second for the rest of the day within the MTN network. Calls from MTN to other networks remain at sh6 per second all day, which remains one of the highest in the market.

Warid  Telecom
Warid CEO Madhur Taneja, whose firm sparked off the price war last week, said he was pleased that other telecoms were responding to the price reduction. “Reducing call rates is the way to go and the consumers will get value for their money and I hope that every player in the market does so,” he said. Officials from the other mobile telephone companies; Orange, Smile and i-Telecom were not available for comment yesterday.

The current price war is seen as a result of growing competition in the market as well as industry regulator Uganda Communications Commission’s recent reduction of the ceiling of interconnection fees from Shs180 to Shs130 per minute where firms fail to agree bilaterally.

Espionage
It has been a feverish seven days in which telecoms have spied on each other for tariff structures booked with advertising agencies and letters to the regulator, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), with cancellation after cancellation before final tariff plans were agreed upon.

MTN boasts of about 50% of the market share. It means there are still more calls from MTN to MTN. But the telecom giant now faces stiff competition on voice that will be compounded when Bharti adapts its Asian model, where it has over 100 million subscribers.

In a letter to the UCC dated September 28, 2010, the MTN chief executive officer, Themba Khumalo, said the network had introduced the tariff to celebrate its 12 years of existence in Uganda.   “During these 12 years, we have been at the forefront of making telecommunications affordable and accessible,” Khumalo wrote.  The new MTN tariffs have been launched under the umbrella campaign labelled ‘Yarriba’.

The UCC public relations officer, Isaac Kalembe, said the development is good for the industry.  [Personally] I think we are moving in the right direction because it is the wish of UCC that the rates are reduced,” said Kalembe.

Analysts also believe this plays into the hands of the consumer who has been paying an exorbitant price compared to other regional markets, largely because of the high interconnection fees.

There has not been a response yet from Orange Uganda.  Orange is the most recent entrant to the country's mobile telecom market.

Zain Kenya Rebrands As Bharti Airtel on October 15

Zain Kenya will commence its re-branding exercise on 15 October, taking up the identity of its new owner, Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel.

Zain has said that unlike previous re-branding exercises, when its predecessors entered the market using expensive above-the-line (ATL) strategies, Bharti Airtel will adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) as its entry strategy, prioritising community empowerment as a key part of its branding drive. Zain has reportedly enlisted the assistance of vendors and street traders in rural markets to increase brand awareness.

A Zain Kenya official commented: ‘This is the first time a telecoms firm will be launching in the country with less activity recorded in the above-the-line strategies and more emphasis on ground activities.’ The shift to Bharti Airtel marks the fourth time that Zain Kenya has changed its brand name during its ten year operating history.

The operator entered the Kenyan wireless market as Kencell in 2000, before changing to Celtel Kenya in 2004 and Zain Kenya in 2008. As at June 2010 Zain Kenya reported 1.89 million subscribers, giving it a 9.4% market share.