NAIROBI: Telkom Kenya, Airtel and Essar are seeking to introduce a standard low calling fee of Ksh4 within their networks. This is a move designed to cut losses caused by current price wars. “The three operators have approached us and we cannot say no to their proposal. We will only come in if we notice that they are colluding to exploit the end users, but they are within the law,” said Francis Wangusi, CCK's acting director general in an interview with the Business Daily. Nzioka Waita, Corporate affairs director at Safaricom commented that this move is uncompetitive in nature and it amounts to cartel like behaviour for operators. “This is uncompetitive business conduct. It amounts to cartel-like behaviour for the operators to set floor retail prices since the law only allows the operators to negotiate the interconnection rate.” said Nzioka Waita, Corporate affairs director at Safaricom. CCK said that the law only allows it to regulate the interconnection rate that is the amount an operator will pay its rival in the event its subscribers call another network. “The current rates are not sustainable and the only way to come out of this is to have minimum calling rates to avoid further destroying the voice market value,” said Ghossein, Telkom's Kenya CEO.