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The Safaricom Marathon attracts participants from all over the globe who come to compete for a good cause.

Michael Joseph Centre is an area that has been set aside at Safaricom House specifically for Safaricom activities, events and exhibitions. The Centre comprises four functional areas: The CSR Space ...

On Saturday 25th June, over 1,000 people will brave the harsh terrain of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to take part in the 12th Safaricom Marathon and Half Marathon, described as one of the toughest marathons in the world. Organised by Tusk and supported by Safaricom, the endurance challenge raises money for conservation in Lewa and development projects in other parts of Kenya. Thousands of people are expected in Lewa to cheer on the athletes who will include children doing a 5-km fun run. KenyaBUZZ spoke to Zaheeda Suleman-Arain, senior manager for Brand Assets and Publicity at Safaricom, to find out more.

Whilst the telecommunications companies are rarely out of the media, this week is particularly interesting.

The ongoing ‘battle for the data waves’ is set to take a major leap in Kenya when by January 2011 Safaricom will roll out its fourth generation network...

Tilda graduated from Brighton University, England with a BA in Combined Studies with a specialisation in Communication/Media Studies. She worked in the feature film industry as Assistant Producer, Script Supervisor for 4 years in London and as a Marketing Executive for a film production studio in Los Angeles.  Tilda returned to London to be a Researcher Channel 4 and MTV, and then a Production Manager for Saatchi & Saatchi. Tilda came to Kenya to be the Broadcast Strategist for KTN television channel in Nairobi and then became Head of Programming.  After leaving KTN, Tilda started Zenith PR Kenya working on strategic communication, marketing and PR for Safaricom, CMC, Friends of Conservation and Kenya Charity Sweepstakes.  Tilda also devised and led media training programmes for the European Commission.  Tilda was Project Manager at Safaricom on an internal culture change project which was implemented throughout the whole staff structure and devised, produced and edited Safaricom magazine ‘The Option’. Tilda set up Castaway Mini Cards Dubai – now expanded to Bahrain, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi & Sharjah. Tilda is currently the Account Director/Marketing Director for InEast Africa (formerly Castaway Kenya) which is a strategic communications and marketing agency specialising in property development.  Clients include Vipingo Ridge, Kilimanjaro Golf and Wildlife Estate and Aberdare Hills.  Tilda is an Associate Producer on the Wingo game show currently on NTV. Tilda specializes in strategic communication, copywriting and marketing.  tilda@ineastafrica.com PO Box 24981 Nairobi

The new owners of the former Zain Africa network, Bharti of India, have wasted little time in Kenya to flood the market with lower tariffs, just as soon as the Kenya Communications Commission had mandated a broad lowering of the crucial interconnection charges, which determine how much one operator has to pay another for calls made into ‘other’ networks.

The KenyaBuzz newspaper is a FREE monthly publication with information about events in Kenya.

The telecommunications industry is back in the news this week. The government has announced that its investigation on cross network call charges allows for further reduction. The report was called for as part of a mediation process following Safaricom and Telkom’s bid to stop further price reductions. From July 2011 the terminating charges will drop to Kshs.1.44 from Kshs.2.21. This is likely to once again trigger price competition, to the benefit of the consumer.

Opening Hours: Weekdays: 7.30am to 6pm Saturdays: 8am to 4pm Sundays & Public holidays: 10am to 4pm I&Mshop;@safaricom.co.ke

Two newspaper reports about Telkom caught my attention: First, an article in the Business Daily that Telkom had made a loss of KES10bn in 2009 in what it had described as a challenging market environment. The second news item was in the East African: the claim that France Telecom was seeking a reimbursement of USD385m for ‘vanished assets’ from the Kenyan government. This did not come entirely as a surprise as I had heard a few months earlier that France Telecom was trying to get some of their initial purchase price refunded. Unfortunately neither Telkom management here nor France Telecom has provided any details on this, and the Kenyan government is likely to argue that the investor should have raised any issues in their due diligence before committing to the purchase.What is clear, however, is that the company hasn’t had an easy time. Aside from the claim that assets have vanished, the company may have underestimated the legacy issues in taking over a former parastatal. Kenya’s economic growth in the past two years has been sluggish, and Telkom needed to invest a lot not just in infrastructure. Cable vandalism has also been a concern. Like the fourth mobile entrant, Essar, with its Yu brand, Orange had tried to engage Safaricom in a price war – with, so far, limited traction, and obviously such a strategy comes at a cost: Both companies haven’t been able to push up subscriber numbers as quickly as they had intended to, so their low-cost offers mean that they are losing money, not the least because many people now carry around several connections and will probably use the low-cost offers of the new competitors while still maintaining their other line(s).For subscribers, none of this is good news: low-cost offers may look superficially attractive, but neither company has yet been made a serious dent in Safaricom’s market dominance. Nor has the second in the market been of much use: After snoozing on the job in Kenya for quite some time, Zain has notably picked up under new MD Rene Meza, but by then, the damage was done, and as with the other two new entrants, Zain also flirted with some costly low-tariff promotions. However, when Zain reincarnates for the umpteenth time to Bharti Airtel, I suspect that many will simply lose patience with the interminable rebranding. Well, many except for the producers of promotional pens and caps and umbrellas, and paint manufacturers.None of this is Safaricom’s ‘fault’, but the market remains very uneven, and for subscribers and overall service development, more intense competition would be beneficial. Interestingly, however, the raging success of M-PESA may actually have been due to just that concentration: Like many others, I have wondered why M-PESA was so successful here, and no other country has yet been able to replicate that success, even though the overall idea really is a no-brainer, and even though Safaricom’s Michael Joseph himself had expected that in less than two years, all major operators across the continent would offer a similar service. I did ask him recently, and he said that a lot of their M-PESA clients actually believe that they are giving their money to Safaricom: Not true, since the mobile operator doesn’t actually touch the cash. But this is what people perceive, and they trust Safaricom enough, on the basis of the company’s network, reputation and countrywide representation, to hand over their cash. In markets with less dominance by a single operator, this trust may take longer to develop; which can hold back adoption rates.

Two newspaper reports about Telkom caught my attention: First, an article in the Business Daily that Telkom had made a loss of KES10bn in 2009 in what it had described as a challenging market environment. The second news item was in the East African: the claim that France Telecom was seeking a reimbursement of USD385m for ‘vanished assets’ from the Kenyan government. This did not come entirely as a surprise as I had heard a few months earlier that France Telecom was trying to get some of their initial purchase price refunded. Unfortunately neither Telkom management here nor France Telecom has provided any details on this, and the Kenyan government is likely to argue that the investor should have raised any issues in their due diligence before committing to the purchase.What is clear, however, is that the company hasn’t had an easy time. Aside from the claim that assets have vanished, the company may have underestimated the legacy issues in taking over a former parastatal. Kenya’s economic growth in the past two years has been sluggish, and Telkom needed to invest a lot not just in infrastructure. Cable vandalism has also been a concern. Like the fourth mobile entrant, Essar, with its Yu brand, Orange had tried to engage Safaricom in a price war – with, so far, limited traction, and obviously such a strategy comes at a cost: Both companies haven’t been able to push up subscriber numbers as quickly as they had intended to, so their low-cost offers mean that they are losing money, not the least because many people now carry around several connections and will probably use the low-cost offers of the new competitors while still maintaining their other line(s).For subscribers, none of this is good news: low-cost offers may look superficially attractive, but neither company has yet been made a serious dent in Safaricom’s market dominance. Nor has the second in the market been of much use: After snoozing on the job in Kenya for quite some time, Zain has notably picked up under new MD Rene Meza, but by then, the damage was done, and as with the other two new entrants, Zain also flirted with some costly low-tariff promotions. However, when Zain reincarnates for the umpteenth time to Bharti Airtel, I suspect that many will simply lose patience with the interminable rebranding. Well, many except for the producers of promotional pens and caps and umbrellas, and paint manufacturers.None of this is Safaricom’s ‘fault’, but the market remains very uneven, and for subscribers and overall service development, more intense competition would be beneficial. Interestingly, however, the raging success of M-PESA may actually have been due to just that concentration: Like many others, I have wondered why M-PESA was so successful here, and no other country has yet been able to replicate that success, even though the overall idea really is a no-brainer, and even though Safaricom’s Michael Joseph himself had expected that in less than two years, all major operators across the continent would offer a similar service. I did ask him recently, and he said that a lot of their M-PESA clients actually believe that they are giving their money to Safaricom: Not true, since the mobile operator doesn’t actually touch the cash. But this is what people perceive, and they trust Safaricom enough, on the basis of the company’s network, reputation and countrywide representation, to hand over their cash. In markets with less dominance by a single operator, this trust may take longer to develop; which can hold back adoption rates. {jcomments on}

The Kenya Museum Society received KES 21.8 million from the Safaricom Foundation to renovate the Louis Leakey Auditorium at the headquarters of the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi. The ...

The competition between mobile operators has resurfaced. Airtel has once again thrown down the gauntlet, by slashing inter Airtel calls to Kshs1.00 per minute (from Kshs.3.00). 

Some internet users last week experienced slow and interrupted connections due to maintenance on South East Asia Middle West Europe (SMW4) cables, which both the TEAMs and Seacom fibre optic cables go through.  Some ISP’s such as Access Kenya informed its clients that extra capacity had been obtained to avoid interruptions or slow downs.  But it turns out that the extra capacity was obtained by reverting to satellite connectivity as a redundancy measure for Access Kenya and various other ISPs. The keeping of these satellite connections is being cited as one of the reasons why costs have not gone down as significantly as expected by consumers since the arrival of the cable.  While having three fibre optic sources for Kenya seemed extravagant initially, it may now be seen as vital. But the fact that two out of the three cables were affected, and the key objective of investing in more than one was for redundancy purposes, raises concern.Elsewhere in the telecommunications industry, the reaction was mixed to CCK’s new communication regulations aimed at creating a level playing field. The market leader Safaricom, with almost 80% of market share, viewed some areas of change as threatening the progress of innovation and ‘product diversity’ in the industry and issued a press release in the dailies. It’s three main competitors, Zain, Orange and Yu, joined together and followed suit with an ad to ‘congratulate the government for taking the bold step.’  While Zain, Orange and Yu consider the changes to foster fair competition, Safaricom voiced concern that the new rules are punitive and geared towards managing a ‘single entity’.The Communication Regulations 2010 puts in place further regulations on disputes, tariffs, compliance & enforcement, fair competition and interconnections. Price adjustments must now be approved before implementation. Althea McCourt ABIS Limited

{jcomments on}Some internet users last week experienced slow and interrupted connections due to maintenance on South East Asia Middle West Europe (SMW4) cables, which both the TEAMs and Seacom fibre optic cables go through.

The Kenyan government, in a surprise move last week, halted the individual development of a 4G network, otherwise known as Long Term Evolution Technology or in layman’s terms fourth generation network.

A restaurant of its kind and considered Kitale's sports centre. Has three Big screen (42 inch) installed with DSTV. Provides viewing of international matches.

The face of Kenya’s banking sector continues to change with much of the focus on reaching the un-banked population. And Kenya has recently amended the law, allowing banks to use  agents to distribute their services.  This has led to partnerships between banks and the mobile telecommunications industry to gain some of the bounty. Safaricom’s M-Pesa, used by some 10 million people, has opened the eyes of banks who have adopted the stance if you can’t beat them, you had better join them.  M-Kesho, launched by Equity Bank and Safaricom, is providing M-Pesa and Equity bank members with the opportunity to bank and obtain small loans (up to Kshs.5,000) without stepping into a bank.  Users will also have access to savings & insurance facilities. The very concept has opened the doors for banks to reach customers without having to expand costly branch networks. Mobile banking has effectively entered the territory of traditional suppliers of small loans such as micro financiers and SACCO’s.  Whilst some micro financiers have in turn  crossed over into banking. The Women’s small scale supplier of loans Kenya Women’s Finance Trust (KWFT) was granted a banking license to take deposits in April this year. The new bank announced plans to ‘operationalise’ twenty branches within the first year, presumably with the aim of creating a clear physical presence as a bank. With over 60% of the population outside of the formal banking system, ways of capturing more of this market will no doubt continue to sprout in the country.  Althea McCourt ABIS Limited

The face of Kenya’s banking sector continues to change with much of the focus on reaching the un-banked population. And Kenya has recently amended the law, allowing banks to use  agents to distribute their services.