Kenya cuts interconnect rates

Kenya's telecoms regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), lowered the wholesale interconnection fees charged by mobile phone network operators by 50 percent, in a move designed to lower consumer costs and attract new subscribers, TeleGeography CommsUpdate reported.

The regulator dropped interconnect charges from KES4.42 to KES2.21. The interconnection fee is the amount one operator pays another for routing traffic through its networks.

Zain Kenya, the country’s second largest cellco by subscribers, announced its intention to cut end-user call charges from KES6 to KES3 across all networks for pre-paid and post-paid customers.

Further, Zain’s standard SMS tariff was lowered to KES1; the industry average for sending an SMS is currently more than KES2.50.