NAIROBI: CCK announced that it will cut the mobile terminal rates in July and it will not conduct a study to determine mobile termination rates as proposed by Safaricom. Safaricom commented that the model used by CCK did not produce consistent results and that CCK should carry out a new study based on International standards. “We have always maintained that the previous cost study was flawed to the extent that the methodology used by CCK was not fit for purpose and produced a result that was inconsistent with the economic realities in Kenya, hence the current slump in the industry,” said Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom as he spoke to the Business Daily. “CCK should ideally take seriously the call from sector players to carry out a new study based more evenly on International benchmarks as has recently been conducted in Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa.” Madhur Taneja, MD of Essar Kenya strongly supported the move by CCK and commented that, “We will continue to see the decrease of mobile termination rates, which will translate into lower calling rates and which work well with our philosophy of making mobile telephony services more accessible to more Kenyans. Francis Wangusi, the acting Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) director had announced that the amount of money an operator pays rivals if its subscribers call another network would drop to Sh1.44 per minute from the current Sh2.21.
