Telkom Kenya joins price war

TELECOMS

By Semaj Itosno, Nairobi, Kenya

The raging price war among Kenya’s mobile operators is far from over.

Just a day after Safaricom lowered its rates in a one-month promotion, Telkom Kenya has followed suit by introducing a daily flat rate of Sh5 that will see its subscribers make unlimited calls and send Short Message Service (SMS) within its network to increase voice traffic.

This is a three-month offer that will allow Orange subscribers make unlimited calls and SMSs after paying the Sh5 daily subscription fee as opposed to the current Sh2 for on-net calls and Sh1 for SMS.

Users will also enjoy free 10 short messages daily to rival networks.

Mickael Ghossein, the company’s chief executive, said the firm is targeting new subscribers with the offer.

“The promotional tariff targets entry level subscribers as well as mobile customers keen on quality and affordable voice services,” said Ghossein.

The offer comes as industry regulator statistics show that Orange market share by voice has remained constant at 0.8% between September and January.

In the Safaricom offer, subscribers will now pay Sh4 for calls below 60 sec, Sh3 for calls between one and two minutes, Sh2 for calls lasting between two and three minutes and Sh1 for calls running for more than three minutes.

Communications Commission of Kenya report indicates that in the first three months of the year Orange subscribers made calls amounting to  19 million minutes within its network against 35 million minutes to rival networks. It also comes a day after Safaricom, which commands 77.3% of the voice marketshare, lowered its tariff for calls taking more than a minute within network.

Airtel and yu have 13.2 and 8.7% market share respectively.