State to enforce fair competition rules for telecom sector

By Macharia Kamau

The Government will implement laws to curtail uncompetitive behaviour in the telecommunications sector, and is now finalising the review of the regulations.

The Information and Communication ministry said the review of the Fair Competition and Equality of Treatment and Tariff regulations would be completed next week and it would start implementation shortly thereafter.

It had gazetted the regulations in March, but put them on hold after Safaricom took issue with them, arguing that they had the sole intent of curtailing its growth and innovation.

"The review of the laws should be done in the course of next week. The competition consultancy experts that we had contracted to independently review the laws should be giving us feedback next week," said Bitange Ndemo PS Information and Communication.

Even the field

The laws, he said, were meant to even the playing ground for all players by stopping dominant operators from abusing market power by lowering or increasing its tariffs arbitrarily, and acting as barriers to other operators penetrating the market.

The three other operators in the market – Essar Telecom, Telkom and Zain Kenya - had been in favour of the regulations.

But the Government yielded to Safaricom’s lobbying, and said it would not implement the laws until some of the clauses had been reviewed. A European firm was hired to look into the contentious issues, including the definition of dominance, its abuse, and also segmentation of the market as one firm could be dominant in data while another in voice.

Speaking yesterday at a ceremony to launch a retail outlet by Telkom Kenya in Nairobi, Ndemo also called on telcos to reduce the cost of connectivity in the country, and instead build on the number of subscribers, rather than counting on the small number of Internet users in the country to make their profits, and in turn charging them exorbitantly.

He noted that while prices had come down, the reduction had not been satisfactory.

Prices still high

"When there is huge supply of broadband and a constantly growing number of users, prices should come down. But there is so much supply and still prices have not come down," he said.

"Operators should bring down the costs and build on numbers. Broadband is a must for everyone in Kenya, since it is the way we can easily take education to rural schools. It would also enable people from remote areas access government services through e-government."

Mikhael Ghossein, the managing director of Telkom Kenya, said the outlet at Nairobi’s Sarit Centre was part of the firm’s strategy to improve on its distribution network to net in more subscribers.

He added that the firm would open other similar outlets in major malls and other strategic locations across the country.

Telkom Kenya is also planning to roll out 3G services in the fourth quarter of this year. The network enables data users access information at higher speeds.

Move to 4G

Safaricom has been running such a network for the last three years, and has in the recent past said it would test 4G later in the year. Zain Kenya got its licence last month and said would deploy the network in the course of this year.

Ghossein said Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) should make clear the conditions of acquiring a 4 G licence.

"The CCK ought to consult with service providers when coming up with the issuance of 4 G licence," he said.