Why big three mobile firms risk being fined more than Sh311 million

Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom could fork out more than Ksh300 million this year if they provide poor network services to Kenyans.

The hefty sum could surpass the Ksh311 million the three telcos were fined in the financial year 2016/2017 for similar reasons.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) on August 30, warned that it will from now on be monitoring  the quality of voice, data and SMS offered by telcos after acquiring equipment worth ksh400 million from German firm Rohde and Schwartz in a bid to tame the operators.

Services that the regulator is closely watching include network coverage, dropped calls, failed calls, speech quality and internet accessibility.

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Speaking to journalists after unveiling the equipment, CA Director General Francis Wangusi said that it will now be mandatory for the telcos to submit raw data on their network performance on an hourly basis.

According to Wangusi,  the authority will sanction the telcos if they fail to submit the data. He said the fines could amount to 0.1 per cent of operators gross revenue.

“The new equipment has the capacity to test the quality of communication services in at least six different locations at the same time so we will be monitoring the performance of the three services (calls, data and sms) we will penalize operators with poor services,” said Mr. Wangusi.

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The Director General however stated that the monitoring process will be conducted in a fair manner to ensure that only telcos that breach the set standards are fined.