of the Telecommunications market
by Press Office
(Companiesandmarkets.com
and OfficialWire)
LONDON, ENGLAND
The expectations surrounding SEACOM
and TEAMS continue, but the reality
is starting to hit the market that
significant change is going
to take some time to emerge.
Figures from the Communications
Commission of Kenya (CCK) show that
the total number of internet subscribers
in Kenya, including corporate subscribers
to high capacity data services,
mobile internet subscribers and
broadband and dial up connections,
was over 1.8mn at the end of June 2009.
It was only after that that the
new international connections started
to come online, so it remains to be
seen whether it has had
a marked effect on the number of subscribers.
Price was always the key issue,
and the cost to consumers
of internet services has not
noticeably changed.
Wholesale data providers, notably
Kenya Data Networks, have reduced
their charges considerably, but there
are a number of factors that still
keep consumer prices high.
There has been some speculation
that service providers have been tied
into signing large long-term contracts
for more data than they currently need
and that this has meant that
the reduction in cost per unit
of bandwidth has not been felt.
BMI suspects that the fact that
other significant overhead costs
apart from the cost of
international bandwidth
still remain, and it will only be
as services providers can
take better advantage of
economies of scale that
prices will really start to drop.
On the mobile front, Kenya is still
an exciting market, although
the first half of 2009 has
overall seen disappointing growth,
and this has led BMI
to downgrade our
mobile forecasts a little.
After a very poor first quarter,
growth in mobile subscriptions
did pick up in the second quarter,
but the dip will certainly have
had an effect on growth for
the year as a whole.
We do expect the pick-up in
the second quarter to be
continued into the third and fourth.
On the regulatory side,
Kenya's mobile market is looking
at some considerable
upheaval on the horizon.
The CCK is trying to introduce
tough new price regulations
that will see the operators having
to notify the regulator
in plenty of time when they want
to change a tariff and will put
a stop to long-running promotions.
The new measures were originally
to be put into place before
the end of Q309, but following
a request for more time
from the operators, it looks like
it will take a little longer
for the changes to be put in place.
Kenya Telecommunications
Report Q1 2010: http://www.companies
andmarkets.com/r.ashx?id=WV86782T7191830
Contact
CompaniesandMarkets.com
Mike King
info@companiesandmarkets.com
Tel: +44 203 086 8600
Link here
--
J-L K
Sent from Kigali, Rwanda
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment