Telkom Kenya cries foul over social media’s free ride on its infrastructure

Telkom Kenya has cried foul over increased use of social media by mobile phone users saying the trend is eating into its revenue while raking in huge profits for platforms such as Facebook.

Ibrahim Epamba, the Telkom Kenya End-to-End Design and Troubleshooting Engineer, yesterday said social media companies are reaping from heavy infrastructure investments made by mobile phone companies which enable subscribers to access the Internet at a lower cost.

“We need to partner with the government and get into a conversation with social media giants on how we shall share earnings made from advertising since we play a crucial part in facilitating access to the Internet.

“At times we do it as a social duty since some far-flung rural areas hardly make economic sense to us, but the government provides us with incentives that enable us to invest in infrastructure development such as installation of GSM towers as well as on satellite technology enabling Kenyans to access the Internet,” he said.

Mr Epamba was speaking during the 2016 Social Media Week Independence Nairobi. This is the second time that Telkom Kenya is raising the matter publicly.

Over-the-top

The debate over whether “over-the-top (OTT) content operators” should pay mobile phone companies to access their networks is a global one, with opinion divided on whether introduction of charges would alienate companies that may not have money to upload their content online.

Mr Epamba said that social media platforms were riding on mobile operators’ networks but hardly paid a cent for the monetary benefits they accrued.

Social media sites have of late managed to carry advertisements which they charge users but continue to offer free online services to Kenyans to link up with the rest of the world.

Mr Epamba noted that companies setting up operations in far-flung regions speculating for oil and gas now enjoy reliable coverage after Telkom Kenya invested in satellite technology.

“We invested heavily but maintained low fees to make the Internet affordable and available to Kenyans. But the return on investment is negotiable since these over-the-top content operators enjoy our services without paying a cent,” he said.

OTT companies ride on infrastructure developed by others but maintain full rights over Internet protocols where they offer various goods and services such as sale of products, services and a major platform for communication at a fee to users or advertisers.

Telkom Kenya, he added, had invested in availing low-end Internet ready devices such as Kadunda and Kadunda Smart phones to facilitate Internet access by low income earners but hardly benefited from billions of shillings made in advertisements by virtual local and foreign companies.

Mr Epamba added that while the government foresaw the need to provide leeways for utilities, none was set aside for Telkom Kenya which had to pay landowners and landlords to install their facilities across Kenya.