Interconnection fees to reduce

The four mobile firms Safaricom, Airtel, Orange, and Yu finally agreed at Ksh 1.60 Mobile Termination Rate (MTR), also known as interconnection fees. The new rates will come to operation in July and Kenyans are expected to make cross-network calls at this reduced cost.

Statistics from the CCK show that Safaricom accounts for about 80 percent of calls by Airtel subscribers to other networks. Airtel paid out Ksh 948 million to its rivals as interconnection fees while Yu and Orange cumulatively have paid Safaricom more than Ksh 10 billion in the past 5 years.

Airtel and Yu who have employed the low cost pricing to attract subscribers have been pushing for the reduction and support of the move. Safaricom, on the other hand has called on a cost study to be done afresh claiming that further reduction of rates is not concurrent to the costs incurred by operators.