Safaricom has hit out at rival, Airtel, for allegedly courting politicians to back proposed rules seeking to have the former declared a dominant player in the market. The leading mobile operator has also alleged a ploy to remove provisions allowing telco regulator—Communications Authority of Kenya (CA)—to test levels of dominance in a player.
Safaricom said review of the Anti-competitive Behaviour Rules, due to be tabled in the National Assembly, could also do away with retail price controls and bar it from revising charges on data, mobile money and call rates down.
The provisions in Articles 23 and 24 of the Competition Act, if interfered with, Safaricom said, could expose its pricing mechanisms to rivals—Airtel and Orange Telkom. Safaricom chief executive officer Bob Collymore yesterday said Airtel has always wanted the regulator to ensure its retail prices are kept up to enable it to gain more business.
“The new regulations will criminalise us if dominance abuse test is removed. It will be against internationally accepted best practices,” said Collymore at a press briefing to announce the firm’s new data regime in Nairobi. If the new sets of rules are revised and passed by Parliament, Safaricom will automatically be declared a dominant player, hence attracting punitive penalties for abuse of dominance.
Any player in the telecommunications sector can be declared dominant if it exceeds 50 per cent market share, according to Fair Competition Equality in Treatment and Tariff Regulations.
Dominant players are also required to undergo a 45-day tariff change approval by the regulator while other operators are allowed to effect the changes immediately, meaning Safaricom would have to operate in a restricted business environment.
Safaricom warned the fact that Airtel has CA, Ministry of ICT and Senate backing on the debate, amounts to unfair play in the market. “The reviews are inconsistent with competition Act. CA is reading the wish list of our competitor and ignoring our views on the matter,” said Safaricom corporate communications manager Stephen Chege.
The mobile service provider said it has written to CA , expressing displeasure at the way the matter is being handled. On Friday last week, Airtel invited the Senate Committee on ICT to listen to their side of the story. Chairman Mutahi Kagwe said the committee would meet Safaricom and Orange Telkom before declaring its stance on the matter.
The committee would, however, later declare its backing for the rules due for debate in Parliament any time now. Following the development, Safaricom has declined any engagement with politicians over the matter, citing lack of objectivity on their part.
“We have been invited but we are not ready to engage with them (Senators) since they have already met our competitor. It raises a lot of questions,” said Collymore. The operator has, meanwhile, scrapped the night data bundles package and allowed it subscribers to roll over unused bundles until they expire.
