Year of ICT earthquakes, innovations and scandals

This year has been vibrant in the ICT sector characterised by innovative products.

The telecommunication sector was particularly upbeat, with the launch of innovative products, and market diversifications.

Across the ICT industry seen as the new frontier to grow the economy, these are some of the most remarkable things that happened.

Mobile banking

The lucrative mobile money transfer business intensified this with the entry of two additional players.

With the launch of Zain’s Zap and Essar Telecom’s yuCash, competition took a new twist characterized by revolutionary products.

Safaricom’s Mpesa, the first in the market, went international to UK, and opened a new platform for its 7.5 million subscribers to connect to.

It main competitor Zain introduced a new concept allowing its users to send and receive money via their bank accounts.

With M-pesa, one can retrieve money through PesaPoint ATMs too.

YuCash— launched in the four quarter of this year which Obopay, a top international player in mobile banking and payments technology — added to all this by giving the sender an opportunity to attach a short message with each transaction at no cost.

Yu also has a contract with its competitors that allows its subscribers to receive money from either Zap or M-pesa.

GTV collapses

The exit of Gateway Television (GTV) was the first evidence in the local market on the global recession that hit last year.

Many Kenyans were rendered jobless, while its subscribers had no source of redress.

It further affected millions of subscribers and sports fans in 22 African countries.

It was also a big blow to healthy competition in the cable TV segment, now dominated by MultiChoice Africa since it offered a more affordable option for Kenyans. For the football buffs, the timing was detrimental as the English Premier league was on course.

Phone tracking

Statistics show that for every ten people, six lose their phones.

Armed with this information, East African Data Handlers unveiled mobile tracking system, dubbed Ujanja, translated from Kiswahili to mean craftiness.

In most cases removal of the SIM card is the first thing phone thieves do.

However, with this tracking system, replacing the SIM card from the registered phone with a another automatically sends a short message to another phone that clients have set during the installation of the software.

Mobile manufacturer Samsung also launched phones with in-built tracker system.

Okoa Jahazi

The introduction of the ‘okoa Johazi’, phone credit facility has gone done well with Kenyans who are in need of a quick ‘loan’ to make emergency calls but are also suffering from empty pockets.

This ground breaking product has been seen to perturb the financial services industry especially due to the 10 per cent interest rate charged on a subscriber when he pays the loan, a model banks cannot replicate.

Landing of the fibre option

Mid this year, the fibre optic cable landed in Kenya, taking the country a step closer to the rest the global village.

Although Kenyans are yet to fully experience its benefits, internet speeds are now much faster, making it easier to download or upload heavy data in less time and undertake video streaming.

Companies are already leveraging on the cable to cut on costs by introducing practices like e-learning, e-marketing and e-communications.

Online transactions are also part of the myriad benefits accrued from the cable. The cable has opened a whole range of opportunities for Kenyans.

Yu’s Amua tariff

The latest entrant in the mobile service provision, Essar Telecom under its brand name Yu launched the lowest tarrif in a bid to attract more Kenyans to the network.

With the name ‘amua’ (decide) this tarrif accords subscribers a round the clock flat rate which is billed per second. The charges are applicable across the network.

Its main rivals, Safaricom and Zain charge Sh8 per minute.

Call back tones

Mobile subscribers in the four networks were this year introduced to a new type of tone, which replaced the usual dialing tone.

It also offered the mobile service providers a new source of revenue.

It has given local artists an opportunity to make money and also popularize their music.

The beauty of the call back tones was the ability of users to customise them.

Charges vary across the networks from as low as Sh25 to Sh40.

Passing of Kenya Communications (Amendment) Act

The passing of Kenya communications Act opened a new chapter for Kenyans as it legalised electronic contracts which are now admissible as evidence in court.

The e-signature, can also be used for official government transactions.

Another major highlight of the Communications Act was the legitimisation of online transactions, allowing Kenya to catch up with the rest of the world.

Already, many companies are utilizing the service, with institutions introducing the e-commerce option in the websites.

Goodbye analogue, welcome digital transmission.

Kenya joined the rest of the developed world in beginning the switch to digital transmission, with national broadcaster KBC leading the way.

The pilot project is in Nairobi and its environs, with plans to roll out to other towns next year.

From one channel in the analogue system to about 16 channels in one in the digital shift, scarcity of frequency will no longer be a problem. Picture quality is also much clearer.

The main challenge ahead for media houses is generating enough local content to engage the audience fully.

Postal Corporation of Kenya scandal

Fred Odhiambo, the Postmaster General at the Postal Corporation of Kenya, was sacked following a forensic audit report which implicated him in mismanagement.

At the centre of the controversy was the electronic payment platform, PostaPay.

It was estimated that more than Sh20 million per month was unaccounted for since Postapay was launched in 2006

Service Provider Number Portability

The much anticipated mobile number portability was approved this year, giving subscribers the ability to migrate across network as they wish, without changing their numbers.

Though, it will become operational early next year, mobile operators are already anticipating a price war as a result.

Yu, Telkom Kenya’s Orange and Zain, were seen as the major winners of this presidential approval allowing service provider number portability.