M-PESA can now send as low as Sh10

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 1- Telecommunication solutions firm Safaricom has announced a major tariff review that will enable more Kenyans in the low income segment to access its mobile money transfer service, M-PESA.

In the changes that are geared towards promoting the financial inclusion agenda in Kenya, registered customers will now be able to send or receive amounts as low as Sh10 from the previous limit of Sh50 effective immediately.

Transfer charges within this band will be pegged at Sh3.

"It was very clear to us when we undertook this tariff review that we were in a unique position to extend the benefits of financial inclusion to more Kenyans, particularly those in lower income groups who rely very heavily on our service," Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said.

The review also makes it easier for customer make micro-payments from as low as Sh10 to Sh49 per month.

Introduced in 2007, the service had over 15.2 million customers and about 35,000 agent outlets countrywide. Over 700 organisations accept bill payment via M-PESA and a further 300 are bulk payment partners.

The company has also introduced 11 new tariff bands as it aims to rationalise the previous disparities between transaction amounts and charges levied for the same.

At the same time, the transaction fees for the band which lies between Sh101 and Sh500 and which accounts for over a quarter of all M-PESA transactions has been lowered by 16.6 percent to Sh25.

This firm hopes that the move will spur more transactions.

"We are particularly conscious of the fact that about seven in ten adults in Kenya now have access to some form of mobile money service and as the pioneers in this space, we have a specific role to ensure that our service remains affordable to everyone," Collymore stressed.

However, Safaricom hopes to make up for the reductions by increasing the levies charged on transferring larger amounts.

For instance, a customer who sends Sh501 to Sh5,000 will pay a transaction charge of Sh30 while those sending Sh5,001 to Sh20,000 will part with Sh50.

Amounts ranging between 20,001 and Sh45,000 will attract a Sh75 levy while the fee for those that lie within the Sh45,001 and 70,000 band will be Sh100.

Previously, the charge for sending Sh100 to Sh35,000 was Sh30 while a fee of Sh60 would be deducted for a transaction ranging from Sh35,001 to Sh70,000.

The withdrawal charges have also gone up and will range from Sh45 to Sh300.

"We have had to increase the charges levied on the bigger amounts being transferred. This is motivated, in large part, by the need to give greater incentives to our growing agent network to embrace higher value transactions, while improving overall efficiency for our customers, particularly float availability," the CEO added.

by EVELYN NJOROGE

For start-ups, tech hub anytime, not Konza city

There has been a lot of talk about Konza City, identified as the possible future Silicon Valley of East Africa and maybe even of Africa.

Tanzania is following up with Raphta City, which more or less follows the Konza City Model.

I would imagine there would be more coming up across the region – one in Uganda and another in Rwanda.

But Konza City does not seem aimed at appealing to the younger developers.

It is modelled to attract only the financially stable companies, primarily from the West or the Far East.

Software developers are flocking in large numbers into tech hubs and this will remain so for the foreseeable future.

So, why are the hubs seemingly being preferred to the bigger tech cities?

If we go back, the story of Silicon Valley had most developers beginning their projects inside their bedrooms or inside their garages.

Google, HP, and a lot of other companies started out this way. It was a cheap way to start out.

Once you had an Internet connection, space to work, a bit of equipment, got your business incorporated and raised some capital, you were good to go.

You slept and worked there, it was home, it was your office, and it worked. Fast-forward to today, and the cost of relocating to Konza City just seems too steep.

To become a resident will not be as easy as paying rent for a low cost office or flat in the city.

You will need a lot more money to gain access; money that could be useful in other aspects of the business like development, marketing or scaling up.

Usually, the romantic view of a start-up is a young person seated in a room somewhere with an Internet connection and a laptop, bashing out code or meeting customer requests. The model has not changed that much when you explore the hub system.

If you have an innovative idea and the smarts to do it, getting into a hub is one of the most practical and cost effective ways to go.

That way, you can gain access to resources that would cost more than a starting developer could afford. With present-day inflationary tendencies, this becomes more of a blessing.

Then there is the aspect of collaborative work. Yes, Konza may offer the same collaborative eco-system, but if you are in Konza, and looking at your costs and time, collaborating may not be as high on your agenda as earning rent and meeting your business objectives would be.

That means a lot of young developers, if they gained access, would risk being isolated from the greater wealth of collective thinking and shared skills.

When I look at the iHub model, it is admirable to see skills being shared and new ideas being developed faster and much better.

Collaborating on ideas is probably one of the best ways to go as the more minds there are on one project, the better the project becomes.

Realising such would be rare in a tech city; which brings out the question of proprietary. When signing up to the iHub, it is mentioned that your skill-set may be requested to assist others who may need it.

This would not work in a proprietary eco-system as the legal work alone would be expensive and complex and would undermine the actual project.

Personally, I believe ideas are free and the best executor is the winner, and that teamwork always wins.

Last year, I was humbled to be invited to speak at the launch of the ICE hub, the first technology hub in Ethiopia. I ended up mediating a proprietary problem they had.

An individual had wanted to join the hub but was demanding that his work should not be discussed, and that he be allowed to build a proprietary business out of the hub.

The resolution was simple. The gentleman had to either come in without the proprietary label or not be allowed to join.

I supported the decision. Coming into a tech hub with a proprietary label would not help in skills transfer, which were badly needed there. Moreover, it would have caused a lot of legal headaches.

In the end, we need a better approach to Konza for it to prove beneficial beyond the residents.

Technology will not grow in a proprietary and expensive eco-system. In today's world, that is a pipe dream. Instead, a low cost open and easy model will work.

As modelled, Konza City could end up isolating people – having the financially able there and everyone else excluded.

But again, it may not be far-fetched to think that Konza City is not intended for start-up developers.

By KAHENYA KAMUNYU

LG takes on Samsung in local smartphones battle

LG Electronics has unveiled its unique Optimus Vu mobile device powered by advanced LTE technology.

The phone offers an unparalleled combination of tablet-like viewing with smartphone portability.

The gadget has made the Korean tech giant to stamp its authority in the latest trend of phablets which is taking shape in the mobile market.

The LG Optimus Vu looks like a big smartphone almost the size of existing 7-inch tablets.

Like other phablets, the gadget is a tantalising hybrid between a tablet PC and a smartphone with users guaranteed of enjoying the features that are associated with both related mobile devices, now in one package.

The LG Optimus Vu features a 5-inch HD display and runs on a powerful 1.5GHz dual-core processor.

The phone runs on Android 2.3 and the company has promised to switch to Android 4.0 operating system in the coming few months.

The processing power of the device suits both business and general multi-tasking functionalities. There is reasonable space of 32GB for storage of data.

The sensitive touch screen is crisp clear and allows users to enjoy multimedia content and also perform office or business related activities like jotting notes with a stylus.

The gadget has a number of productivity apps like Polaris Office for opening and working on documents or presentations while on the go.

The screen makes viewing of documents, books, Internet and multimedia content easier and more comfortable.

"The Optimus Vu was designed to maximise what customers could do with a smartphone," says Dr Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Mobile Communications.

He adds that the tech giant is embracing advances in technology in line with customer needs and part of the result is excellent user experience with elegant gadgets.

The unveiling of the LG Optimus Vu brings into focus the expected competition with other similar devices.

Phablets are part smartphone and part-tablet in simple terms. One could look at a phablet as a giant phone or a small tablet with a screen of 5-inches.

This new class of mobile devices has the Samsung Galaxy Note as the main rival to LG's product. Both devices are 'big' phones from the Android family with almost similar features.

The Samsung Galaxy Note runs on Android 2.3, has a 5-inch screen, and has powerful processing capability just like its competitor.

"We will continue to emphasise our focus on smartphones in terms of superb technology and satisfaction of consumers as well as affordability," says, Mr George Mudhune, head of marketing and corporate communications for LG'S East and Central African region.

In Kenya, the gadget will soon be available at Sh60,000. It portents stiff competition to Samsung's Galaxy Note.

The smartphone was launched in Korea by LG recently before its debut at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

By ESMOND SHAHONYA

Internet impeded for 21 days after cable cut

 By VICTORIA RUBADIRI on 2/27/12

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 27 – Internet users are to experience slow connectivity speeds for about three  weeks, following a confirmed fibre optic cable cut affecting The East African Marine System (TEAMS).
In a statement, TEAMS' General Manager Joel Tanui says undersea cable maintenance company E-Marine will commence repair work on the damaged cable to reduce the downtime and its impact.

The cut occurred when a ship that was docking, dragged its anchor on the cable, four kilometres from the Mombasa landing station on Saturday, affecting a significant proportion of the international fibre capacity in and out of the country.

Mobile operators Airtel Kenya and Safaricom on Sunday announced that they are working to rectify the situation, by re-routing their Internet traffic to alternative capacities.

About eight data operators have been affected and have also been looking at redundant routes.
Safaricom Director of Corporate Affairs Nzioka Waita admitted on Sunday that their data customers were likely to continue experiencing service degradation for the next 24 hours as the firm re-routes internet traffic to alternative capacity in the SEACOM and EASSy cables.

"We expect that over the next 24 hours, between 80 and 90 percent of our traffic will be back at normal speeds," he added.

Waita added that they are in talks with officials from TEAMS who anticipate that it might take more than seven days to fix the fault.

"From our discussions with TEAMS, we do expect that it (repairs) will take at the very minimum a week and a half but during that time we will have already made alternative arrangements," he emphasised.

Voice, SMS and other services however remain unaffected as the firm activated its satellite link to provide its back -up capacity.

Safaricom has a 19 percent capacity in TEAMS and has leased capacity in the privately funded SEACOM and EASSy as it seeks to become competitive in data services market.
According to statistics from the Communications Commission of Kenya, the operator is the market leader in the local data market, with 92 percent of all internet subscriptions in Kenya on Safaricom connected devices.
The company now provides fibre connectivity to 500 buildings.

Airtel could drop low-cost strategy

Bharti Airtel is going back to the drawing board to chart a new strategy for the African market, following what it termed as an unexpected and surprising response to its low-cost model from the continent.

The Indian telecom company told participants at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, that it was surprised to find that the African market did not increase its talk-time, which was critical to supporting its low-cost model.

"Unlike India, we were surprised that in Africa, lower tariffs could not increase volumes. In Africa, subscribers use the money saved on lower-calling rates to buy food and not to talk more.

"This means that we have to think of a new model that works there," the firm's chairman and MD, Mr Sunil Mittal, said.

This vindicates data released by the Communications Commission of Kenya at the height of the price wars, which indicated that low calling rates failed to lift talk-time.

The announcement is a signal that the firm could opt out of the low-cost model, which has forced mobile operators across most of the 17 countries it operates in Africa to follow suit.

It will also be welcome relief to Safaricom and Telkom Orange, who have described the low-cost model as unsustainable.

The firm, however, said Africa remains critical to its future growth and hoped to transfer experiences and success in its business model to the developed markets.

Mr Mittal said Africa and other emerging markets need smartphones and tablets to be priced below $50 to allow the data evolution that is shaping up to turn into real growth.

"My suggestion is that countries can give a huge tender to a single phone maker to deliver the smartphones as long as they are below $50," he said.

By PAUL WAFULA pwafula@ke.nationmedia.com IN BARCELONA, SPAIN

Mobile World Congress 2012 opens in Barcelona, Spain

More than 60,000 players in the telecommunications industry are gathered in Barcelona, Spain for the Mobile World Congress 2012 where technology companies will discuss future of communications and the networked society.

The annual conference, which kicked off on Monday, has attracted over 3000 chief executive officers from the telecommunications sector around the world and is expected to give a platform for players in the mobile industry to make announcements of their latest innovations. According to the proponents of the networked society more than 50 billion electronic devices such as fridges, television sets, washing machines, iron boxes, ovens among others will be connected to the internet by 2020. "We shall have machines talking to one another and all this will be made possible through internet connectivity.

"For example, an alarm clock and the lighting system can be connected in such a way that when the alarm goes, the lights automatically come on," Mr Steven Shovel, an exhibitor from Ericsson, a network infrastructure manufacturer told the Nation at the sidelines of the conference. Ericsson plans to launch new products during the conference around the areas of Mobile broadband, operation and business Support systems. Other participants showcasing the latest innovations include GSMA, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony among other gadget makers. Network security, cloud computing and mobile money transfer will also be discussed in light of how they fit into the world of connectivity.

Proponents of the networked society say gadgets which won't have capability for internet connection at the turn of this century will be seen as 'dead' items and difficult to use. Already manufactures of electronic gadgets and mobile network infrastructure developers attending the conference are formulating acceptable standards that will guide this internet revolution. The conference will end on March 1. According to industry data, over 400 million smartphones will be sold this year and by 2016, over 4 billion others will be deployed. Players in the mobile industry are also discussing innovations around the smartphones and tablets as well as how to develop gadgets that can be accessible to price sensitive gadgets for markets such as Africa.

By PAUL WAFULA, pwafula@ke.nationmedia.com IN BARCELONA, SPAIN