Archives For cck

Where to play in the mobile value added services ecosystem

February 17, 2011 — Leave a comment

It is always interesting to hear discussions around emerging technologies or industries that seem to capture the minds of everyone; from your barber to the executive at a FMCG company. More often than not, if the discussion is based on mobile technology, a lot of assumptions are made as to who plays what role and where the opportunity lies.

At the very top of the mobile ecosystem is the regulator CCK – Communications Commission of Kenya who are in charge of issuing licenses to mobile network operators, premium rate service providers – PRSP’s and content providers. The different tiers of licensing attract varied fees with the current cost of the PRSP and content provider license standing at Ksh 100,000, on top of an application fee of Ksh.10, 000. The license fee is annual and from year two, it  is based on a percentage of revenue generated by your firm with the lower limit of Ksh.100,000. Continue Reading…

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Understanding revenue generation for value added services on mobile

February 10, 2011 — 4 Comments

The fact that mobile is big in Africa is undeniable with more people seeking to understand how to  derive maximum value from this channel. What most seek to know is how to generate revenue from the various services that they can offer. To generate revenue, one must have the ability to bill for services and there are various ways of doing this.

Shortcodes
Shortcodes are 3-4 digit numbers that are availed by Mobile Network Operators (MNO’s) to Premium Rate Service Providers (PRSP’s) for purposes of setting up services.  At the time of setup, shortcodes are assigned billing bands which range from normal sms rates to premium rates of up to 100 shillings. Shortcodes don’t offer flexible billing and you must choose the best fit for your service. Shortcodes attract a monthly rental fee from the operators and may attract a premium one-off fee if the code is considered “golden”, such as an easy to remember 5544 for example.

Mobile operators usually reserve the use of 3 digit short-codes for network centric services. Continue Reading…

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Don’t get into trouble buying lists, just build your own email and text database

January 20, 2011 — 2 Comments

When thinking about reaching out to the mobile consumer, we tend to gravitate more to the obvious use of sms – either directly via bulk messaging or shortcode. There has been a market for hawking lists and databases locally that has seen many hapless Kenyans spammed silly with non – opt in, non targeted marketing material.

Email seems to have slipped to the back burner as many may not have noted mobile device manufactures adapt their devices and software to cater for mobile email.

That various social networks have over one million Kenyans registered; it very well means that there are the same number of active email addresses with real people behind them waiting to be engaged. The social networks have also primed consumers for alerts via email as practically all actions that occur on their platforms are communicated back via email.

However, the rules of engagement are not far off from what we have seen adopted for the more ubiquitous messaging channel that is sms. The key challenge with email, is that delivery may not be guaranteed and if delivered, it may not be opened by the target consumer. The obvious advantage of email over sms is the amount of information you can disseminate and the ease of retransmission of your message to the social graph.

So how do we ensure that email is plugged back to our consumer communications? Continue Reading…

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The beautiful ones are not yet born: thoughts on the future potential of mobile, a look at the Nokia, IIEC and Safaricom partnership

September 6, 2010 — Leave a comment

A few years ago election monitoring and reporting was a tricky, tiring and often thankless affair. Dealing with Kenya‘s elections processes in the last decade, in particular, has largely involved sending hordes of polling clerks, election observers and monitors, with paper files stashed in their underarms, to far-flung areas to help record the goings-on election and referenda. Apart from being slow, unreliable and erratic, such processes have proved risky for election officials especially if violence broke out.

But things are changing. Mobile phone technology is rapidly transforming the way these national and other crucial life-changing activities are carried out, bringing with it faster, reliable and credible relay of information from outlying areas.
Apart from elections reporting, the ubiquitous device, owned by nearly 20 million Kenyans, has also helped stem incidents of violence that have in the past rocked various parts of Kenya notably in 2007 elections. A lot depends on how transparent such processes as elections are but the mobile phone is taking a lion’s share of the contribution toward this positive change.

In a ground-breaking project in conjunction with the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), Safaricom, Kenya’s largest network operator, the world’s leading mobile handsets-maker Nokia supplied over 18,000 Nokia 1680 phones to be used by the electoral body’s returning officers and clerks in various part of the country.

IIEC had picked Safaricom after, inviting Kenyan telecom operators for a partnership with it with the objective of running an efficient and credible referendum process. Continue Reading…

In Misfiring neurons, Mobile, Technology , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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How to differentiate your telco…lessons for Zain, Orange,Yu and any other chap trying to play catch up

August 20, 2010 — 1 Comment

It may feel abit dumb to start off like this…but any kiosk owner will tell you this. If you all stock the same nyanya skuma, you will be left with no recourse but to compete on price. The kaching comes with setting yourself apart…I would stop here and have you call me and pay me to walk you back to the school of basics but am in a good mood today.

Like I told you before, you better stop this price war maneno or you will all soon go out of business or best bet see massive hemorrhages on your bottom line. Micheal Joseph has said time and again – he has investors to take care of, and I have to agree with him on that point, coz I would expect a divided on my shares, if I had bought like 1 million of those “papers” when the country was going green and this not alluding to the referendum. My boy Rene is willing to take a hit for the next 5 years because he has a big brother with deep pockets. Deep pockets get depleted, and if your strategy doesn’t work out, you will be out of a job – tail tucked and the Kenya operation will be spun to some other hapless investor with big visions and their head in the clouds, with grand plans of a turnaround.  Rene was on Business Daily explaining their strategy…you will remember the Vuka tariff that was discontinued…hmmm

Bwana Atul of Yu, jumped over the cliff late last night and put it out that they too had “amuad” and dunked prices to 5cts per second or more directly 3 bob per minute and 50cts per sms on onnet messaging.

Mickael Ghossein has been quiet thus far after the sparing between the Pinks, Greens and Blacks, but I kinda guess he too is thinking of their new lower price point. I am sorely hoping that his decisions will have a good measure of thought and not some knee jerk reflex. Continue Reading…

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The next frontier for brand engagement is mobile

August 19, 2010 — Leave a comment

Technology doesn’t exist for its own sake, if it did, it would die a rather quick death from lack of adoption that would see it maintain relevance. Mobile has morphed into a lifestyle with many consumers not giving a second thought to the technology that powers it, not that they should anyway. But as it morphs into a lifestyle, it creates a new playground for interaction which many brands are yet to catch on, still basking in familiar old school methods of engagement.

The opportunity here is very real and would offer great benefits for the first mover.  Brands need to start developing and implementing mobile strategies if they are to engage their consumers on a personal level. The battle for mindshare and eventually consumer purses will be won by the brands that will offer truly compelling and personalized experiences. Continue Reading…

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Zain slashes rates by 50% for calls to all networks in Kenya

August 18, 2010 — Leave a comment

Zain Kenya has today lowered its calling charges across all networks by a whooping 50% – becoming the first mobile phone company in the country to pass to customers the benefit of the new low interconnect charges released by the Communication Commission of Kenya. The mobile phone company has lowered its callings charges to Kshs. 3 across all networks in Kenya for both its prepaid and postpaid customers in a move that abolishes completely the distinction between intra-network and cross-network calls costs.

SMS costs have also been lowered to Ksh. 1 across all networks in Kenya. In what is arguably the best value proposition ever launched in the Kenya telecommunications industry, Zain said the drastic reduction in calling charges would benefit its customers and those on other networks who are paying extremely high prices for making phone calls. With the lowering of the connectivity charges to a new low, Kenyans will now be in a position to switch mobile service providers while retaining their current numbers once the number portability directive comes into force. Continue Reading…

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How I would like Safaricom, Airtel,Orange and Yu to engage:co-creation and testing with real end users

July 26, 2010 — Leave a comment

Recognizing that many development companies may not have specialized marketing people or the resources to conduct formal research,Safaricom, Airtel, Orange and Yu can help fill this gap by opening up access to their customer base to encourage co-creation and testing with real end users, free of charge.

That said, developers need to figure out how to make their applications stand out from the crowd. Giving your app away for free doesnt mean a damn thing and won’t hack long term. This is business…at least I want to make some chingching. If there is no emotional or financial bond between your application and the user…then your sunk even if you were to pay guys to use your app :-(

Key to ensuring your app will appeal to consumers is working directly with your intended audience at an early stage. Why waste time and effort if you don’t have an understanding of the following critical questions:

  • Which features will make a difference to people?
  • What is your addressable market?
  • How much are people prepared to pay you for your trouble, if anything?

Whats the point in working on a closet killer application that is not so killer once you go to market coz you essentially build a product for yourself? #sadbuttrue

Maybe a mobile subscriber volunteer initiative that would see developers get access to real world users to test their apps. The feedback would be vital to the creation of sticky mobile utilities.

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Kenya, a whiff of the mobile scent…an overview

June 26, 2010 — Leave a comment

East Africa’s most prosperous economy is not surprisingly the regions mobile technology cluster. Kenya with its capital Nairobi, has a vibrant ICT community with a number of top-class, innovative technology firms and research and development facilities. With the deregulation of the telecommunications sector,Kenya moved beyond a duopoly consisting of Safaricom and Kencell (today Zain Kenya…tomorrow Bharti) at the end of 2008 when Orange Kenya and Yu launched services as the third and fourth players. Combined, the total subscriber base is over 18,5 million users (CCK 2009) out of a population of about 40 million (UN 2009).

The deregulation, together with the introduction of a single license for ICT service providers, have in many ways leveled the playing field for other service providers and lead to increased competition. In this streamlined licensing framework, a holder of a single license can offer many different services without additional licenses. Also, during 2009, the telecommunication regulator in Kenya “established policy guidelines on infrastructure sharing in an effort to ease the investment burden of new entrants into the market and avoid duplication of resources” (CCK 2009). As a result, Zain Kenya and Yu agreed to share infrastructure. Continue Reading…

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Overview of East Africa’s ICT sector and mobile market

June 21, 2010 — Leave a comment

UN’s International Telecommunication Union, ITU, estimated that there were 4.6 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally by the end of 2009 (ITU 2009b), two-thirds of them in the developing world. A quarter of a billion mobile subscribers can be found on the African continent and the number is constantly increasing as it is the region with the highest annual growth rate in mobile subscribers (ITU 2009a). Continue Reading…

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