ADDIS ABABA: The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) is currently awaiting a report on the current competition of the mobile voice market and tax revenues before it makes a decision on Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) in the country. The report is to deliver key statistics on the mobile market in Kenya in order to give the CCK the adequate information on what to do about termination rates for customers who have complained about the lack of a reduction. CCK Director General Francis Wangusi denied the government's hand in the MTR rates, which have been increasing in recent years and customers have urged the government to put a halt to such taxes. Wangusi said the decision on MTR rates “shall be fair and in the wider interest of consumers and mobile telecoms industry, and without influence from any quarter." The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research Analysis (KIPPRA) was contracted to take on the study and is scheduled to present the interim report to the CCK management and board in the coming weeks. In May, telecom operators in the East African country had agreed to lower the MTR to KES 1.60 a minute from KES 2.21 but in August, President Mwai Kibaki intervened to halt the reduction.
