Joram Conceding that Safaricom is ahead of the pack...I think the better question is 'For how long?' Safaricom's ability to stay ahead of the pack has been in large part due to their ability to read the market and pre-empt change so that they always seemed a step ahead. Part of the reason I think there is lots of excitement about what is happening is because, for once, they seemed totally taken by surprise by what the Bharti guys did with Zain, and secondly, the manner in which Bharti are coming after them...so brazenly...is the same way that safaricom has dealt with its competition in the past. I think what is worrying is that Safaricom waited so long to 'react' to the market. Whilst everyone else quickly modified their tariffs to either equal or better the Zain offer, Safaricom took its time...not wanting to seem hustled, before launching a month long offer. This I think will turn out to be a big mistake. One of the things that is becoming clear about the mobile market is that the consumer market in Kenya is very fast becoming quite educated. People are not going to stick to a network simply because of the 'loyalty' factor, which was the case 4 or 5 years ago. People are looking for value. When the value differential on cost in negligible, then slowly the market will begin to look for value in other things like quality of service and add-ons. So it is not strange that consumers are not super excited about the latest safaricom offer, that zain is only too happy to remind us is a 'limited term' offer, and is loaded with 'terms and conditions', which aren't applicable with theirs. As far as Data services are concerned...they still aren't the cheapest provider on the market, though they have the best speeds so far, from experience. But once the other operators e.g. Orange, get their game in check...the game will be quite open. Add on to that the fact that the CCK have basically set the 31st of December as the launch date of 'Number Portability', in the country, which will mean, the only reason I will want to stay with Safaricom, is my MPESA account, if ZAP hasn't by then convinced me that they are more widely accessible, and their lower commission rates are worth the shift. And finally, I'm one of those guys who believes that while data is one of the bigger components that MNOs need to look at as their next money making frontier, there will also be the chance to collaborate with developers to launch Phone and SIM based products, that operators can push to their subscribers and make a ton of money off. From past experience, there was a time getting a meeting with the largest players in the market to pitch a simple idea was quite a process for most developers. And that's why I think Bharti's arrival is interesting. Indian Telecom firms have a reputation of being very open and encouraging developers to engage and release new products to their market. If that's what they introduce here with Zain...then perhaps Zain will get their revenge on Safaricom...for what they did to Kencell...years ago! From: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke [mailto:skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke] On Behalf Of Joram Mwinamo Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:06 AM To: Skunkworks Mailing List Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Safaricom's Data Strategy If you overlap competitors 10 times, when they recover 1 lap, you are not recovering, you are still way ahead of the pack On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 6:10 PM, Jac <jack.gathoni@gmail.com> wrote: This is interesting and Safcom is making an early data market penetration when the others are concentrating on voice which I think is a smart move because right now even if you have 12 million voice user and you are charging two or three shillings to call per minute, then you won't get as much profit like before when we used to be charged six and eight shillings repectively per minute. In simple words the voice market is not as lucrative as it used to be and that's why safaricom is strategically positioning itself for data market. If there is something that I admire about safaricom is that they have very good strategic plans and with time they will do a come back. On 9/1/10, Gituma Nturibi <gnturibi@gmail.com> wrote:
They're playing both teams a few years ago lte and wimax were considered competing technologies so investing in both is win win for them
On 9/1/10, Patrick Karanja <wabethi@gmail.com> wrote:
On the same note someone has just pointed out to me this
<http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/en/issue-no-510/top-story/vodac om-becomes-the-first-operator-to-switch-on-an-lte-network-on-the>
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/14841-Cell-reveals-new-broadband -pricing.html
50 Rands per GB
regards
Patrick
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