Will the Registration Deadline be extended?

With only three days to go, most Kenyans are without any pressure to register their SIMs. As a matter of fact, most will learn of it when they are eventually switched of from the network. Anyway, its quite a challenging deadline to beat, both for the operators and the subscribers. Good to learn that more people are now downloading the registration forms from the respective operator websites and dropping them with the other required credentials at the operator offices. Questions is, when will all these forms be validated and entered into the database? It may take quite some time but we should not rely on that (for those of us who have not bothered)

Apparently, there is no legal backing for the punishment of the offenders of the exercise because the necessary legislation has not been passed yet. This means that the unregistered  subscribers cannot be switched off, at least until the parliament discusses the matter (note that they are currently on recess until next month).

Otherwise it has been reported that Safaricom has already registered 70% percent while all the other operators have registered below half their subscribers. This reminds me of people who have several SIM cards who would definitely find it cumbersome to register separately with different operators and may have decided to abandon their SIM cards.
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Download Safaricom registration form here
Check respective websites to download the forms. You only need to fill it and attach you copy of ID before you drop it at any listed dealers in your network. They will be forwarded later.

Finally Michael Joseph resigns!!

By November this year, there will be no more "Kenyans are peculiar people" from the Telecoms industry. This has been confirmed by a press release today by the chairman of the Safaricom Board of Directors who announce the resignation of Michael Joseph. He will be officially out of office on November 1st and he is to be succeeded by 51 year old  Collymore. What MJ will be up to after this resignation is still vague and there is no mention at all about his future. He has faithfully served Safaricom for ten good years and has seen the company grow into a multi-billion company and a market leader after coming in a bit late (remember Kencell?) Good work, we must admit (whether you are on safcom or not)

Michael Joseph, Safaricom CEO

This is definitely surprising as we wait to see whether his successor will be up to the task of holding Safaricom at the helm, as well as providing effective telecoms services! Bob Collymore (successor to be) has been in the industry for more then 30 years and is tipped to be the only befitting successor. He has been with Vodafone up to recently as the Global Purchasing Director. We can only wait and see what he is worth. One thing for sure is that Safaricom has a strong foundation but is currently facing a lot of competition from other local operators. The price wars are getting more and more tougher. They have to keep on innovating and innovating lest they are out smarted.
Recently also, the Number Portability License was awarded  to Swiss company and they are in the process of setting up the infrastructure. I'm eager to see how they will keep their market share when the portability issue is up and running. Of course, they have the most superior 3G network and data to them should be really a strong hold for now, for voice, they will have to rethink, and rethink seriously cos Yu is silently catching up on that.
More info here. Meanwhile we wish him well in his endeavors.
I'm more curious!!!!!!

Are you ready for Number Portability?

After years of lobby amongst industry players, Kenya is finally set for Number Portability. For, starters, number portability simply means, being able to change network operators with a single SIM that is installed on your phone. You will no longer have to buy dual or triple SIM phones since you will be able to change carrier anytime based on network coverage, quality and price. This will definitely make the already fiery price wars much more stiff. As a subscriber though, one can only be happy because everything is only getting better. Sure thing though, is that, the habit of carrying along multiple SIMs will be a thing of the past.

The Communications Commission of Kenya recently announced a License to a Dutch company known as Porting Access BV,  that will be responsible for setting up the infrastructure, roll out and manage Number Portability as from July.The company will be the intermediary between the subscriber and the different Operators.Exact dates are not disclosed, some sources say that it may be realized in December.
Among the other bidders, were companies such as Seven Seas Technologies from Kenya, Teletech from Slovenia, Saab Grintek Technologies from South Africa and Systor Group of Companies.

Locally, the telecoms have always been on a price war, with offers being rolled out every other day. I even doubt whether the consumer is always able to discern between the mash-up and make a befitting decision. People are almost confused of what to use. This roll out will definitely be something interesting as regards local operators. Safaricom, for some while had always been skeptical about this but now, it's inevitable. What I can assure people is that, Safaricom is Smart. They must be having something in the offing to ensure their command in the voice market. For the rest i.e. Zain, Yu and Orange, must be very happy at this, because it makes the playing ground even more level. Level but not straight if you ask me. They must be more innovative.

TECHNICALITIES. (for techies., depends)

On Number Portability, there are some technical terms that you will definitely not avoid. They include,

Number Portability - Number portability is a telecommunications network feature that enables end users to retain their telephone numbers when changing service providers, service types, and/or locations.
Donor Network - Is the network providing service before porting.
Originator Network - Originating network is the network providing service to a subscriber placing a call.
Recipient Network - Recipient network is the network providing service to a subscriber number after porting.
Terminating Network - Terminating network is the network providing service to a subscriber receiving a call.


Operator portability: refers to the ability of a subscriber to retain the same telephone number when changing from one operator to another.
Location portability: refers to the ability of a fixed telephony subscriber to retain the same telephone number when moving from one physical location to another.
Service portability: refers to the ability of a subscriber to retain the same telephone number when changing from one type of service to another.

As you can see, NMP has quite some technicalities but all this will definitely be abstracted from the common subscriber and one will not need to remember all this. For more details on the implementations read HERE

For now, we can only wait and see how it's received by the public domain.

SCOSIT RELAUNCHES TONIGHT!!

Finally the squabbles on SCOSIT power are now over. The two contenders met and they resolved to work together for the sake of the IT community in JKUAT. SCOSIT stands for Society of Computer Science and Information Technology.
If you ask me, this was a very good move given the division that had already began rearing it's head between the Computing department and the IT department. So, it has been agreed that both Kenneth and Kennedy will be in power together (much like power sharing, damn it's becoming common).

The first official SCOSIT meeting is scheduled for today. Actually, top of the agenda is the logo competition whereby the best logo maker will be awarded an instant 1000/= (something good for a random Tuesday night). All members are requested to submit their logos for evaluation during tonight's meeting so that the judges can decide on the winner. Sam, you are good at this.

SCOSIT is very promising. Since it went underground, there has been no club that really stood for the technological advancements in JKUAT JUJA. This is an opportunity for external networking for students and graduands alike. So, we wait and see how the meeting goes. All are welcome. JKUAT students, meeting will be held at the SCC, at 7.30pm.

Find me HERE too.