With three players in the market, the pricing structure of mobile telephone communication has drastically changed with the subscribers having the last lap.

The entry of third mobile telephone provider Orange Mobile has critically rearranged the status quo in the sub sector dramatically ending the party for the tow hitherto established player Safaricom and the recently rebranded Zain Kenya.

The latest shift is a price cut that will see Orange Mobile subscribers make on network calls for as little as Sh1. this was unimaginable just a few weeks ago as the duopoly between Safaricom and Zain Kenya persisted.

The reduction announced on Wednesday just one week after Zain Kenya drastically reduced its cross network charges form Sh15 to 7 brings to the fore the rush for subscribers that is currently playing out and leaves market leader Safaricom hanging as the most priced mobile network in the country.  

The current arrangement makes Orange Telkom the cheapest network when it comes to On Network calls while Zain Kenya remains the cheapest on Cross Network calls. The same is the case with short message service (SMS).

Orange mobile's new tariff is expected to push pressure on other mobile providers to lower their tariffs as the battle for airwaves begins in earnest. This is the lowest tariff in Kenya 's mobile telephone history since its introduction eight years ago. Under the new Orange Mobile Tariff structure, calls to Orange Fixed Plus and Telkom Fixed lines will be Ksh 7 per minute. Calls to non-Orange Mobile services will cost Ksh 14 per minute while all SMSs across all networks within Kenya will also cost just Ksh 1.

The landmark offer will make Orange Mobile even more accessible to Kenyans whilst allowing Telkom Kenya to collect important data to enhance and fine tune the GSM network.

 "Orange Mobile is a brand new GSM service in Kenya and we're keen to develop the service to the world class standards we believe Kenyans deserve. The best way for us to do this is to make the service as accessible as possible and to listen to the very people we want to serve." said Telkom Kenya Chief executive Dominique Saint-Jean. Said he, "The new initiative is a reflection of the Orange vision 'Together we can do more' and part of Telkom Kenya's new refreshing approach to doing business by listening to Kenyans in order to deliver the world class services they want,"

The popular Family and Friends service which allows Kenyans to call five Orange or Telkom numbers at just Ksh 3.5 per minute will remain unchanged except where those numbers are Orange Mobile numbers, in which case they will automatically be charged just Ksh 1 per minute.

 The new Ksh 1 offer will be automatically available to all Orange Mobile customers.

Dominique also noted that Following Telkom Kenya 's partnership with France Telecom in December 2007, Kenyans have been continuously benefiting from a complete revamp of their national operator including investment of over Ksh 8 billion on infrastructure and maintenance, as well as an additional investment of several billion shillings spent on enhancing customer service and internal training.

One can easily bet that the last of the price cuts has not yet been seen even as Safaricom goes back to the drawing board to readjust its tariff structure in a bid to a tame an ongoing exodus to cheaper service providers.

Just months after an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that left more questions than answers especially to local investors who happen to be the basic Safaricom subscriber, the hare price of the most profitable company in East and Central Africa at the Nairobi Stock Exchange has not helped matters. Sinking to an all-time law of Sh4.05 on Wednesday, investors, especially the short term ones were left wondering whether they really placed their bids on the right horse.

Though Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph denied mid this year that the upcoming competition would not have much impact on their customer base and revenue generation, the opposite is becoming evident as the three player launch an onslaught for each other's throat. The situation could get more interesting with the expected roll out of yet another mobile service provider in the name of Econet Kenya before end of the year.

After close to five years of false starts indications are that the South African based Econet Wireless International could be entering the market by mid December in what will herald another scramble for the market share. With just about 15 million mobile telephone subscribers in the country, the players will be forced to re-invent new strategies like provision of affordable handsets to tap millions of Kenyans currently unconnected.