Zain Shakes Kenyan Mobilephone Market With New Tariff Rates !

"It takes a courageous person to effect great change"- Zain Kenya has just proved to be that person in their recent  call rate price cuts.In a media briefing at the Hotel Inter-Continental  yesterday, the Managing Director of Zain Kenya Mr Rene Meza  yesterday announced that both pre pay and postpaid Zain Kenya mobile subscribers would be able to call across all networks at a flat rate of Kenya Shillings 3/= per minute and send Short Messages(SMS)at Kshs 1/=.

The bold move has resulted in many Kenyans switching on to Zain from Safaricom which has been the dominant mobile phone operator with the most subscriber base.The move is a harbinger of serious competition for the big players  in the African Telecommunication industry from Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel’s following its takeover of Zain’s Africa business two months ago.


The recent SIM registration exercise being conducted by the Communications Commission of Kenya seems to indicate that Safaricom has over 12 million 'active' subscriber base.However the mobile phone operator needs to be responsive to its consumers if it intends to remain relevant both in the mobile phone and data market.Consumers just like politicians have no permanent friends or enemies, service delivery and costs count more than brand loyalty.The price wars are welcome since the beneficiary is the end user !