CA to make public controversial report on state of competition in telecommunications sector

[Photo: Courtesy]

Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) will make public the controversial report on the state of competition in the telecommunications sector in February.

The regulator said on Monday it would host a stakeholders’ workshop to share the findings of the study and receive further inputs from the public and other stakeholders on February 20.

“Subsequently, the authority will release the final report including a roadmap for implementation of the adopted competition study recommendations,” said CA in a statement.

Some stakeholders had accused CA of implementing the contentious report illegally in the wake of the revival of plans for the roll-out of mobile money transfers interoperability by Safaricom and Airtel.

End debate

The two firms are currently conducting joint system tests for the long-awaited service.

It is hoped the release and consequent implementation of the report, close to a year after the conclusion of the study, will lay to rest the dominance debate once and for all.

The telecoms industry regulator had commissioned the study and among the areas of the probe was the extent of Safaricom dominance in voice and mobile money against the background of reports that the firm could have used its position to frustrate competition.

The study was undertaken by Analysys Mason in 2016 and the UK research firm handed in a draft report early 2017.