Communication Authority of Kenya’s (CA) mobile termination rates. The company commended the Authority for what it referred to as a timely determination on termination rates which will greatly benefit the Kenyan consumer.
In its press statement, Airtel points out that the current MTR of KES 0.99 (which is due to change to KES 0.12 on January 1st 2022) has been applied for about 7 years whereas it was intended to apply for only one year.
Airtel argues that CA’s reduction takes into consideration the 7 year delay and that it is fully aligned with the interests of the consumer.
The telco now joins Telkom Kenya which already declared its support to the move,terming it as a progressive step towards making voice services more affordable and accessible to more Kenyans
Airtel says customers will benefit from better services with the new rates as telcos will have more money to invest into their infrastructure and networks as opposed to using the money to pay high interconnection fees.
This reduction will also increase mobile penetration in Kenya and enhance access to voice and data services to support the Government’s broadband strategy and better position Kenya as a regional ICT Hub.” Reads part of the statement.
Recently Safaricom went to court seeking to have the new termination rates declared invalid as the right procedure was not followed by the Authority. According to the telco ,the Communication Authority ignored public participation, and that it didn’t provide the necessary evidence of how it reached the decision to reduce the termination rates.
Airtel has further challenged Safaricom’s decision to go to court.
“We believe that any attempt to delay or scuttle the implementation of the MTR will deny consumers the benefits of more affordable calling prices. This benefit to consumers needs to be protected considering that high Mobile Termination Rates are not meant to be a revenue source for Mobile or Fixed voice service providers but an enabler for seamless calling which improves consumer access to communication.” stated Airtel
