The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is seeking the input of the public regarding the review of local voice mobile termination rate and fixed termination rate.
This time around, the CA is planning to use a program called ‘benchmarking methodology’ to review the fees.
For context, when a person makes a phone call, the call is routed from one provider to the next until it reaches its intended destination.
To this end, voice mobile termination is associated with the endpoint at which the call is received. In this case, the destination is a mobile network carrier.
Termination services play a key role in rearranging the data once it hits the recipient’s device. The task is important because it ensures quality does not deteriorate.
Of course, these services are paid for, and it is what the CA plans to revise with the help of stakeholders and the general public.
Tracing the development of call termination, the CA issued a determination to all operators in 2010. The issue named Determination No.2 of 2020 provided a glide path that guided the gradual reduction of interconnection fees over the following four years.
However, the implementation was halted during 2010/2011 for further assessment that sought to reduce the fees further.
In mid-2011, the CA issued Addendum No.2 to Determination No.2 of 2010 revising the mobile and fixed termination rates, implying that implementation would run till 30th June 2015.
The glide path expired in mid-2015, and the CA took a decision to observe the market and see how the market reacts before proceeding to undertake another costly study.
At the moment, all operators are implementing mobile and fixed voice termination rates (MTR and FTR) of KES 0.99.
The period has also necessitated a review, which will use benchmarking methodology that basically identifies the best performance being achieved in the industry.
The public is therefore invited to make submissions on the proposed methodology and any other information that may be taken into consideration in this exercise.
Contributions can be sent to trconsultations@ca.go.ke and addressed to the Director-General of the CA.
The deadline for submissions is after two weeks from the announcement date (27 July 2021).
