Thursday, 12 April 2012

IHUB KENYA THE BEST THING KENYA HAD

Situated on the 4th floor of the Bishop Magua Centre on Ngong Road, the iHub provides a space where young entrepreneurial members can receive mentorship, Internet connectivity and the possibility of venture funding through connections with the international venture capital community. The iHub has been called the "unofficial headquarters of Kenya's tech movement

Tuesday, 10 April 2012


CDMA mobile phones introduced into the Kenyan market about five years ago are lagging behind their GSM counterparts in the lucrative market.
Total CDMA mobile subscribers in Kenya are less than 400,000 while total GSM mobile subscribers are about 17 million.
In the second quarter, global CDMA subscribers stood at half a billion compared with GSM’s four billion.
Africa had 25 million subscribers with CDMA and 415 million with GSM.
CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, a mobile technology that supports voice and data, just like its rival, Global Systems for Mobile communications (GSM), against which it is competing for supremacy elsewhere in the world.
A spot check among mobile shops indicates that few dealers have stocks of CDMA mobiles.
The mobiles are limited to a few models, all having price tags of less than Sh4,000.
One put off, analysts say, is lack of integration that has limited the uptake of the mobiles which do not allow access to the more popular GSM networks.
CDMA subscribers are tied to networks of specific service providers like Telkom Kenya, Flashcom, or E.M. Communications.
The structure of tariff charges by service providers and the fact that they are volatile has resulted in users preferring GSM mobiles that affords them the opportunity to take advantage of tariff rates at any given moment.
“The models of CDMA mobiles sold locally do not measure up to the performance of GSM mobiles in terms of internet speeds and other features,” said Mr Salim Kithinji, a technology expert with Symbiotic Media Consortium.
Telkom Kenya is the dominant player on the CDMA platform and observers say that the main affliction of the mobiles arises from confusion of consumers in the transition following the acquisition of Telkom Kenya by France’s Orange Mobile.
“Consumers ended up being confused. At first, the service they were associated with was called Telkom Wireless, and then later it was branded Orange Fixed Plus. Their visibility in the market has also been poor,” said George Gichuki, a customer service employee at Telkom Kenya.
He adds that most mobile consumers are not first-time buyers.
“They want more functionality from their mobile phones,” he said.
CDMA mobile phones on sale have basic capabilities like voice and SMS.
Analysts add that Telkom Kenya abandoned the push for the phones since the strategic role they were to play in the market has since been rendered obsolete.
With the entry of Safaricom and the second mobile operator (known as Kencell at the time), the market share of Telkom’s fixed line service came under threat as more people took up GSM mobile services that were more reliable and offered more convenience than fixed lines.
In reaction to the new threat, Telkom rolled out the Telkom Wireless service using the CDMA phones to match the benefits of mobile telephony offered by its competitors.
Telkom Wireless offered lower tariffs since it did not attract the 26 per cent levy that was charged on mobile calls.
The move generated a lot of controversy, with the government being accused of favouring Telkom.
The company at that time defended itself, saying Telkom Wireless was essentially a fixed line service that could not be interpreted as a mobile service.
But the criticism mounted and last year Telkom launched its own GSM service, levelling the playing field in the telecom sector and consequently the CDMA phones lost their strategic spark.
“The initial strategy by Telkom Kenya was to market the CDMA phones to government agencies and the corporate world,” said Angela Mumo, Telkom’s head of corporate communications, adding that the company intends to reposition the mobiles to capture individual subscribers.
There has been heated debate about which of the two technologies is superior to the other.
When CDMA first appeared on the scene, there was talk that it would supplant the GSM platform.
Safaricom’s CEO Michael Joseph, constantly defended GSM, saying that there is no big difference between the two platforms.
Proponents of GSM have repeatedly pointed out the fact that it was the first technology and that globally, it is the most widely used.
Analysts say the fact that GSM was the first to arrive in Kenya and in the region has led to its wide usage that has served to entrench its position as the telecom platform of choice.
Its usage in the East Africa region has made it possible for service providers like Zain and Safaricom to enter into roaming contracts with other service providers; a move that has made enabled them to offer services to subscribers travelling across borders at no extra costs.
CDMA on the other hand is touted as superior in internet data services.
It is widely used in Asia and North America.
Currently, however, analysts are of the opinion that the debate about which of the two is better is just splitting hairs since there have been improvements on both sides.
They argue, were CDMA to emerge as better, switching from GSM to CDMA would be easy.
The debate appears to be more about market than technology.