East African Business Week

Nairobi, Kenya - A raging dispute on the implementation of mobile number portability (MNP) has reignited a longstanding feud between Kenya's largest mobile operator Safaricom and its fiercest rival Airtel Kenya.
On May 3, Safaricom which boasts of a 78% share of the Kenyan telecoms market , announced it had sued against Porting Access, the firm charged with hosting the porting database accusing it of impartiality in the implementation process.
"Safaricom is inclined to believe … that Porting Access, which acts as the custodian of the porting database, has abdicated its role as a neutral clearing house for the MNP process in Kenya by actively batting from the corner of a single operator: Bharti-Airtel completely against the letter and spirit of the multi-lateral contract signed between the operators," Safaricom head of corporate affairs Nzioka Waita explained.
He charged that they had evidence that points to an active collaboration between Bharti-Airtel and Porting Access on accusations directed at Safaricom alleging it was failing to cooperate with the process.
MNP which was implemented on April 1 allows mobile users to switch to an operator of choice while retaining their mobile numbers.
Airtel Kenya has in recent weeks accused Safaricom of sabotaging the implementation of the MNP, by blocking its porting clients.
And in a strongly worded rejoinder issued May 11, Airtel Kenya managing director Rene Meza stated that by going to court Safaricom was trying to divert the situation on MNP to focus on non-issues with Porting Access, "who have implemented the system effectively". Mr Meza charged that "the problem clearly lies in their own domain." "The facts are clear that both the implementation of MNP and further lowering of interconnect rates has led Safaricom into a position where it needs to protect its leadership position at all costs, as it is under threat of losing thousands of customers," Mr Meza said.
He noted that Vodafone, Safaricom's parent company is a company with adequate history and experience in the implementation of MNP in several markets around the world and  that Safaricom can borrow from, in order to ensure a seamless process in its implementation in Kenya to the benefit of customers in Kenya.
"The Kenyan project has been on the cards for the last two and a half years and they have not yet managed to sort themselves out," said Mr Meza.
He defended  Porting Access saying "it is the best in the world at this process but requires operator co-operation to be able to do the job effectively."
Safaricom had on Tuesday maintained that the accusations by Airtel and Porting Access were baseless since the findings of an audit process initiated by telecoms regulator the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK)  between Safaricom, Bharti-Airtel and Porting Access was yet to establish the cause of SMS failures to the Porting Access data base.
"We strongly object to the impression created, by Bharti-Airtel and indeed by some commission-hunters, that the single measure of the success or otherwise of MNP in Kenya, is how many subscribers port from other operators to Bharti-Airtel," said Mr Waita.
He decried the fact MNP was implemented in Kenya after a single week of technical testing saying this is against a global benchmark of at least six to eight weeks of testing time necessary to guarantee the robustness of all inter-linking systems and dependencies.
Telecom analysts have said MNP which was implemented over a month ago is a high stakes affair in the scheme of competition among the operators. CCK has rooted for it terming its implementation "as the last mile of competition in the Kenyan telecoms sector"
Mean while, Airtel Kenya has launched a low cost post pay package in the local market that will see customers sign up for Ksh 500 (US$ 6.1) per month.
 Customers who subscribe to the Postpaid Timam service, the operator said, will also be entitled to 200 free minutes for local calls and 10 free SMS every month.
 In a statement, airtel Kenya Managing Director Mr. Rene Meza said the Postpaid Timam bundle will provide customers, especially individuals and small businesses, extra flexibility in controlling their costs.
"The Postpaid system is a more effective way of managing your communication needs.
“Apart from convenience, customers on the post paid arrangement enjoy relatively better terms due to their longer term commitments," he said.
  He said though the post pay mode has predominantly been associated with corporate clients, individual customers are now beginning to embrace the idea.