Thursday, May 18, 2006
Phone Company eats its children
Simu ya jamii phones have provided employment opportunities, and been a lucrative side business for many people including disabled Kenyans, cyclists, owners of kiosks and cybercafés. But operators' profits have taken a tumble of late owing to the licensing of additional operators as well as mobile phone companies own products – such as sambaza and me2u which have made it possible for traditional 'simu ya jamii customers' to receive fractional airtime gifts from other mobile users.
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2 comments:
I think what killed simu ya jamii is not Sambaza, though it does have an impact on the distribution of credit in consumer phones and who gets to call who.
In my opinion what killed simu ya jamii and other community phones is the introduction of lower cost scratch cards and phone credit. the likes of bamba 50 and 100 bob scratch cards.
Anonymous: I agree that bamba 50 has also contributed. Also it it pointless for the companies to make denominatins so small without also reducing the cost of calls
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