The regulator has instructed operators to interconnect at Sh0.60 per SMS, a rate which they are expected to progressively reduce to Sh0.05 by 2013.
In a statement signed by the CCK Commissioner General Charles Njoroge, the commission said, “The Communications Commission of Kenya has issued an addendum to the Interconnection Determination No.2 of 2010 on Short Message Service (SMS) Interconnection termination rates.
Operators are now required to implement lower termination rates with effect from January 1 2011. All operators are at liberty to negotiate lower SMS termination rates subject to the capped rates,” Njoroge said.
The rules which were issued on August 16, 2010 noted that the prevailing wholesale termination rates for SMS’s were way above the incremental cost of providing these services across networks. This was established through a study carried out by the Commission in last year.
“The study established that the incremental cost of offering mobile SMS termination services for an efficient operator in Kenya was Sh0.015 per SMS while the prevailing negotiated termination rate among operators was Sh2.00 per SMS,” the statement said.
And following the large discrepancy, the operators were instructed to re-negotiate lower termination rates and file new tarrifs with the regulator before November 16 2010. Njoroge said however that the operators had not reached an agreement by the set deadline prompting the CCK to intervene.
“As the industry regulator, CCK is mandated to among other things, promote the development of a competitive telecommunications sector in the country.
“The Commission’s intervention in this respect is intended to provide guidance to the sector and ensure that the Kenyan consumers enjoy more services at reasonable prices,” the statement added.
“Operators are expected to interconnect at Sh0.60 per SMS and reduce progressively to Sh0.05 by 2013, according to the prescribed glide path,” said Njoroge.
Brian Adero in Nairobi, Kenya
