Very well said Davis. Too add on (another perspective):

There is pricing that messes up business. Internet connectivity costs are just too high. According to http://www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm, Kenya has only 17,700 broadband subscribers as of June 2009 and 3.359 Million Internet users.

If we do our trade and governance right, Internet users in Kenya will triple in the next 3 years (to 10M+ users = about 25% of our population then).

Charging Kenyans USD 100 for 1Mbs is not viable for anyone in the long run. We appreciate it is still 30-50 times less than was required a short while ago but ..

A Kenyan in Canada recently told Skunkworks they are getting up to 6Mbs (Download) and 1Mbs (Upload) for USD 40 per month. Is it too much to ask for

i. Up to 512kbs for USD 20.00 (with a minimum 10GB per month cap) - Parliament.go.ke should legislate this as a Kenyan Internet Right if CCK cannot enforce it. How else do we promote e-learning (streaming low quality video) and other types of e-transactions NOW?
ii. Up to 1.5Mbs for USD 30.00 (with a 20-30GB cap per month)
ii. Up to 3Mbs for USD 50.00 (with a 60-80 GB cap per month).

How else is it possible to get 1 million broadband subscribers (and 10M+ internet users) in 3 years time. It will also make Application Service Providers viable who will buy more bandwidth from Telcos to make their Apps more accessible to the 10M+ internet users.

What are the 1Million Laptops for? Offline computing? Why are we building roads to most parts of Kenya now for? Is it not to make new towns, trade and farm produce viable and more accessible? Why are we tripling our electricity generation capacity over the next 3 years? Is it not to enlighten more Kenyans and to power computers and base stations?

If prices are not dramatically lowered IMMEDIATELY internet uptake and development in Kenya is just going to be delayed. How are investors in Fibre (marine and terrestrial) going to recoup their costs with 50,000 broadband subscribers in Kenya (and the EAC)?

It is very encouraging to hear the Kenyan Govt will punish Public Officers who pay / buy bandwidth for more than USD 600.00 per MB (non contended) - here henceforth. Beware!

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Davis Waithaka <daviswaithaka@gmail.com> wrote:

The same goes for the internet. If I have spent billions of shillings to
lay a cable from here to the middle east, i am going to charge what i
can to recover most of my setup costs. Then I will start charging to
cover my maintenance & operation costs plus some profit. There are no 2
ways about it,.. again assuming this is not charity.

In fact, I am usually a bit miffed when we say this business or that
company is fleecing people. Well, if you applied for a job there you
would like to be well paid, right? If you supply to the company you
would like your invoices to be honoured, right? If you bought shares in
the company you would like to have a good dividend, right?

--
Davis Waithaka <daviswaithaka@gmail.com>
Systems Kenya Solutions




On Mon, 2009-08-31 at 05:40 +0300, Gakuru Alex wrote:
> banks are charging more because telecoms are stealing their customers
> thus continually making them irrelevant. M-Pesa - a good example and
> shifted billions to mobicos proof. Why cheap internet will reverse
> that is because we shall retain those billions in our wallets - there
> will less demand to borrow, and we may actually use banks some more,
> hence their rates may drop and expect new third party payment systems
> away from telcos-owned. All this hinges on us ensuring that telcos
> stop exploiting us on communication- a basic human right. So we
> intensify our fight with telcos, and whatever circumstances have
> perpetuated the current state of consumer.. i.e. banks are the 'old'
> problem, our  new 'problem' is telcos.. I bet my lunch on that:-)
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 9:51 PM, aki<aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 9:26 PM, Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> Take heart... change is coming:-)
> >
> >
> > @Alex, self defeating ? Is cheaper internet going to make operational costs
> > cheaper? I don't think so. Internet is a very small corner of expenditure
> > of most businesses. The effects are not going to be felt to except those who
> > are doing large established turnovers. The majority rest will continue to
> > feel the effects of almost fake economies i.e expensive borrowing, lack of
> > loan peformances, a glut in unemployment and its effects, physical security
> > business doing booming business and cost of food, fuel, rent, electricity,
> > transport remains high.The Internet is also not going to change anyones
> > lives in slum or informal settlement areas who will continue crying out for
> > food, basic needs and a better future.
> >
> > Indeed, banks and other servcie sectors have led the way in conmen schemes
> > out to steal and exploit the country with the BIG green light from
> > governance.
> >
> > Try borrowing on that 14-17% on loans and see if it makes any business sense
> > to be doing so, unless it can be passed on to end users and higher
> > pricing..... :-)
> >
> > Rgds.
> >
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