Telcoms regulator acts to rein in dominance
Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore (right) with Airtel Kenya Managing Director Adil El Youssefi during the 2014 in Nairobi on October 21, 2014. Airtel Kenya has retrenched 60 employees in a restructuring process that was announced on Friday. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The proposed regulations will outline roles of the sector regulator vis-à-vis the Competitions Authority of Kenya in dealing with dominance, an issue that has sharply divided the industry over the past few years.
- It comes in the wake of a protracted push by Airtel Kenya to have Safaricom declared dominant and action taken against the mobile phone service provider to reduce its market share.
- These include a fair competition and equality of treatment clause that empowers the authority to automatically declare any telecommunications firm with a market share of more than 50 per cent, dominant.
The communications regulator has asked the International Finance Corporation to assist in the formulation of new rules on market dominance.
The Communications Authority of Kenya yesterday said it had signed an agreement with the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to provide technical support and strengthen its muscle in investigating and enforcing abuse of dominance rules in the sector.
The proposed regulations will outline roles of the sector regulator vis-à-vis the Competitions Authority of Kenya in dealing with dominance, an issue that has sharply divided the industry over the past few years.
“CA and IFC intend to cooperate in promoting market competition and efficient investment in Kenya’s communications sector through developing a collaboration framework in light of the concurrent jurisdiction over competition matters between CA and the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK),” the regulator said in a statement issued in Nairobi yesterday.
It comes in the wake of a protracted push by Airtel Kenya to have Safaricom declared dominant and action taken against the mobile phone service provider to reduce its market share.
Further, the agreement paves the way for development of world-standard competition policy and regulations that will ensure a level playing field for investors in telecommunications.
The CA last month proposed a set of 11 regulations expected to come into force by mid-June.
These include a fair competition and equality of treatment clause that empowers the authority to automatically declare any telecommunications firm with a market share of more than 50 per cent, dominant.
