zain has no 3G...
and strangely, its only in kenya that zain/celtel is doing a bit bad.. in other african countries, its a force to recon with.
and to add to the strangeness, zain kenya has more subscribers than most of those african countries [the kenyan population is relatively high when compared to other countries]
ooh, and they did not fire/drop customer care, just the planning guys [cos apparently they are not planning to expand].
I understand that one of the biggest loses was in the vuka thing,, 8/- for all networks ?? made them about 9 billion loss?
In essence, am told that Zain was actually paying for those calls, hoping for a customer pick-up,, which did not happen soon enough, though it was slowly taking place..
Reason ?
Safaricom was charging them 5/- connection fee, slap in taxes about or almost 2 shillings.
Then you remain with about 1 gross shilling for every 1 minute 8 shilling call.
Now when you look at after company expenditure profit [and kenyans calling habits] - you can understand the (-ve)9billion.
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The big question is ?? Are there unfair business practices ??
Looking at the fact that zain/celtel has been pushing for lower connection rates but with no success at the courts,,,
one can understand why as a company i would like to maintain a one way bottle neck where if i am stronger, i would heftly fine customers trying to call other networks therefore creating the common fear that we hear alot these days:-
"You are in zain/orange/econet, i cant call you, you call me"
Another point
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The government owns CCK, Telkom and therefore part of safcom and orange...
Now if I was the government, why the hell would i help my competitors rise against me ??
Kinda like owning both the referees and a set of teams in a national match. :-)