NAIROBI, Kenya, October 29 – Airtel Kenya has accused the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) of ignoring Safaricom’s market dominance in Kenyan Telecom space thereby creating an uncompetitive market
The telco firm told the Senate Departmental Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation that the regulator is yet to declare the telco firm dominant in the retail mobile market and retail mobile money market despite the telecommunication competition market study done between 2016 and 2017 confirming their dominance
Other complaints issued by Airtel is the uneven allocation of mobile spectrum with Safaricom having 82 MHz, Airtel 50 MHz and Telkom 37.5 MHz
As of June 2021, Safaricom accounted for 64 percent of market share followed by Airtel and Telkom at 27 and 6 percent respectively.
Airtel noted that Safaricom market shares are above the dominance threshold of 50 percent in the law but the regulator has failed to declare their dominance.
“The market share trends vividly demonstrate that market forces cannot correct the market situation without a deliberately regulatory intervention by the CA,” Airtel said.
As part of their recommendations, it has proposed “fair allocation of spectrum, dominance declaration, implementation of Asymmetric Mobile termination rates/reduction of MTR and publication and implementation of telecommunications competition market study. ”
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), which also made submissions to the committee, urged the government to provide payment option for consumers in order to encourage healthy competition.
“This is a matter that should involve the banking sector, their payment partners, and the fintech sector just as much as it involves mobile money providers,” it said.