Government-owned Telkom Kenya recently submitted a formal complaint to the Communications Commissioner of Kenya (CCK), alleging unfair and anti-competitive play by mobile telecommunications operator Safaricom.
Telkom Kenya complained that Safaricom was breaching an interconnection agreement made by the two operators to send short message services (SMSes) from Telkom's CDMA platform to the Safaricom network.
The issue arose when complaints started circulating that Safaricom was deliberately blocking a new voter registration SMS confirmation service from the Electoral Commission of Kenya, being run from the Telkom wireless network.
According to Kenya's Business Day, Telkom Kenya had shown concern that Safaricom is abusing its dominant market position by introducing barriers to new entrants targeting the SMS market segment.
In reaction, a Safaricom spokesman, who did not wish to be named, says the interconnection agreement had not yet been initialised because the service was not yet ready, as billing charges were insufficiently tested.
The spokesman explains that Telkom Kenya and Safaricom have been in talks regarding SMS interconnection rates and logistics.
"The two companies have been testing the interconnect service and billing stipulations over the past six weeks, with final testing still in the pipeline. There are many technical issues which still need to be tested in order to provide an efficient and reliable service."
The complaint made by Telkom Kenya to the CCK was premature as both parties are still in discussions on the finer details, the spokesman adds.
Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph recently said the complaint made by Telkom Kenya was an issue that should have been resolved between the two operators, instead of going through the CCK.
"The issue is commercial by nature and the CCK should only have to deal with regulatory issues."
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