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A drop of 50-75% in cost of making calls has even affected the country's inflation rates – but customers aren't complaining
Mike Mutuha is the master of cheap talk. He has two mobile phones, both holding two sim cards. By subscribing to each of Kenya's four mobile providers, Mutuha ensured he never had to pay the exorbitant off-network rates that have long frustrated consumers here.
But his thrift may now be redundant.
In recent weeks a brutal price war has broken out between the mobile operators, slashing the cost of calls between networks by at least 50%, and in some cases 75%. The cuts have come so fast and are so deep that they caused Kenya's August inflation rate to drop, along with the jaws of some mobile executives complaining that they are now losing money.
Customers, meanwhile, are celebrating by talking longer and switching networks to take advantage of the best deals. "What we had before was exploitation," said Mutuha, a salesman in downtown Nairobi. "The mobile companies weren't even selling anything physical – just air."
The arrival of cheap calls is the latest chapter in the extraordinary story of mobile phones in Kenya. From just 15,000 subscribers in 1999, there are now more than 15 million registered customers. Census figures last week showed nearly two in three households own a mobile – twice as many as have access to piped water. Only 1% of homes have fixed line phones.
Besides enabling millions of people to easily communicate over distance for the first time, the mobile phone has spurred a host of other life-improving innovations, including a money transfer service that allows people to send cash instantly across the country via text message.
Although call charges have been decreasing, until last month costs remained too high for many Kenyans, forcing them to rely heavily on text messaging.
"Even if you were talking to your mum you had to cut short the story because of funds," said George Okoth, a book vendor, as he queued for a new sim card in town.
The fast-growing market has attracted international mobile giants to Kenya in recent years, including Indian firms Bharti Airtel and Essar, as well as France's Orange, which are all now trying to break market dominance of Safaricom, part-owned by Vodafone. Bharti, which recently purchased Zain's Africa-wide network, is relying on its homegrown model of high volumes and low charges to expand its business.
Taking advantage of the Kenyan government's decision to halve the interconnection fee that operators can charge each other, Zain cut its rates for all calls from six shillings to three shillings (2p) per minute a few weeks ago.
As long queues of new customers formed outside its shops other networks were forced to match the offer. Orange has even resorted to giving away new Nokia, Samsung and Motorola phones – unaffordable to many people just a few years ago – to anyone buying £8 worth of airtime.
The new tariffs mean that off-network call charges have decreased by more than 93% since 2003.
"Just like nobody expected the exponential growth in mobile subscribers, nobody thought prices would come down so much now," Eric Musau, an analyst at African Alliance investment bank. "It is great news for consumers, though it will hurt the companies' profits." To make up for it, the mobile operators are eyeing the internet as the next area of growth.
With the arrival of three undersea fibre-optic cables in Kenya over the last year, data speeds have increased dramatically.
Although just 4% of households own a computer, ever-increasing numbers of people are accessing the internet on their handheld devices, including Blackberries and iPhones sold by some of the mobile operators.
"Internet on the phone in the next big thing, but we need smartphone prices below $100," said Aly-Khan Satchu, a financial analyst in Nairobi. "The day that happens things will really surge."
BT Fon app allows Total Broadband customers with an iPhone or Android phone to connect to the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot for free
BT has launched a mobile app for broadband customers that automatically connects their iPhone and Android mobiles to free, unlimited Wi-Fi.
The BT FON app, which is only available to BT Total Broadband customers, notifies users of the nearest Wi-Fi hot spots. Users then enter their BT internet email username and password, and can choose to be automatically logged in whenever they are in a BT Wi-Fi area.
Because access is unlimited and free for BT Total Broadband customers, this prevents them racking up extra costs on their mobile phone bill. BT FON and BT Openzone currently has 1.6m Wi-Fi hot spots worldwide.
Mike Wilson, manager of mobiles and broadband at moneysupermarket.com, said: "There are a lot of users who don't know that they can use their bundle minutes away from home. The application even has a map that shows users exactly where their closest hot spots are. It's a real asset to bundle users."
Apple's iPhone already offers a non-app-based search option for Wi-Fi connections, as does Android. Both are a standard free function of the handset, but search options often direct users to password protected hot spots as well as unlocked Wi-Fi providers, and access to them is not always free.
John Petter, managing director for BT Retail Consumer, said: "This represents real value to our customers at a time when more and more people are using their mobile phone to access the internet."
iPhone users can download the application from the app store (search for BT Fon) or by typing http://bit.ly/iPhoneBTFon into the iPhone's browser. Android users can download the application from the Android Market (search for BT Fon) or by typing http://bit.ly/AndroidBTFon into their browser. BBC's Children in Need appeal will receive 50p for each of the first 20,000 times the application is downloaded.
Apple announces social networking service which will display the music interests of friends via iTunes, iPhones and iPod Touch
Having cornered the MP3 player, mobile phone and computer tablet markets with the iPod, iPhone and iPad devices respectively, last night Apple announced its latest expansion – into social media – with Ping.
Ping will be integrated into Apple's latest iTunes software update and will enable users, or "Pingers", to follow musicians, friends and others to see details including what music they're buying and what concerts they're attending.
Steve Jobs, Apple's chairman and chief executive, said the information will arrive in a long stream of updates, similar to the way Facebook and Twitter work.
"Be as private or as public as you want. The privacy is super-easy to set up," he said adding that users can choose to automatically accept followers or decide on a follower-by-follower basis – similar sounding controls to those on Twitter.
The service is available immediately to more than 160 million iTunes users, Jobs said, and will also be available across the iPhone and iPod Touch ranges.
The feature is believed to have been based on the technology Apple acquired with the purchase of the former online music store Lala.com last year.
The iTunes logo will no longer feature a CD – mirroring the change in the program's focus.
Jobs unveiled a range of other upgrades to its products and services, including a new version of Apple TV – which will allow users to stream television programmes and films.
The company is also releasing a revamped range of iPods, including an iPod touch with front- and rear-facing camera, Jobs told an assembled crowd of journalists, bloggers and analysts in California.
Until now the Apple TV device was "never a huge hit", admitted Jobs.
The box originally allowed users to buy films and television programmes, but the latest version, which is smaller and, at $99, much cheaper than its $229 predecessor, will only allow the renting, rather than purchasing, of content.
Users will pay $4.99 for high-definition films on the day they come out on DVD, while the rent of high-definition TV shows will be $0.99, Apple announced.
"We've sold a lot of them, but it's never been a huge hit," Jobs said of Apple TV. The new version will be available within a month.
Jobs also introduced a new design across the range of iPods, including the latest Nano, featuring a rotatable screen and a new Shuffle which sees the return of buttons – its predecessor was voice activated.
The new iPod Touch will have front- and rear-facing cameras, the latter of which will be able to record HD video content, Jobs added.
Government says it hopes junk will be sunk by rules on new numbers, but critics fear more monitoring of citizens
China began requiring identification from anyone buying a new mobile phone number today in what it says is a bid to stamp out junk messages.
But critics say the move gives the government a new tool for monitoring its citizens.
The rules apply to everyone, including foreigners visiting the country for a short stay, the China Daily newspaper reported.
The paper said the regulation was "the latest campaign by the government to curb the global scourge of spam, pornographic messages and fraud on cellular phones".
Low-cost mobile phone sim cards are readily available in China, at convenience stores, newspaper stands and airport kiosks.
Until now, they could be bought anonymously with cash and used straight away, as in the UK. But such a system makes it difficult to track down spammers.
The China Daily said Chinese mobile users receive an average of 43 text messages a week, 12 of which are spam.
The ID requirement is raising new privacy concerns and is likely to upset some customers unwilling to give out personal information for fear it will be resold, said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China, a technology market research firm.
Wang Songlian, research co-ordinator with the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said the requirement fits a pattern of tightening government control over new communication technologies.
China censors internet content it deems politically sensitive and blocks many websites, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Following ethnic riots in western China's Xinjiang, international phone and internet links to the region were suspended for months.
The new regulation will probably not affect Chinese dissidents, many of whom already have their phones closely monitored.
But it could help police track down ordinary people who take part in spontaneous protests, Wang said.
China has seen a growing number of protests sparked by labour disagreements, anger over pollution and other issues.
"I think the government has an eye on Iran where protests were fuelled by text messages and Twitter and they are doing this for social stability reasons," Wang said.
China has more than 800m mobile phone numbers already in use. The Global Times newspaper reported today that 320m of those were bought without real-name registration. The numbers will have to be reregistered by 2013 or could be suspended, the newspaper said.
China Unicom, one of the country's three major state-owned phone carriers, says on its website that the ministry of industry and information technology requires real-name registration for all new phone numbers starting today.
A company official said China Unicom would strictly implement the new rule.
"It will help reduce spam and fraudulent text messages, and also help us improve service to customers," Wen Baoqiu said.
China Mobile – the world's biggest phone carrier in terms of numbers of subscribers – would also comply with the directive, said a spokesman.
The ministry of industry and information technology did not respond to questions about the new rules.
At a Beijing newspaper stand where sim cards are sold, a 24-year-old officer worker said she supported the move.
"I hope it will help crack down on spam," Wu Xi said. "It won't be a problem if I have to show my ID."
Chen Haimin, the owner of a Beijing convenience store, said he was still selling cards without personal information and he was doubtful that the new scheme would tackle junk mail. "How do you know if people are even showing their real ID?" he said. "People who want to send spam can always come up with ideas to get around the regulations. Besides, it's not hard to get a fake ID."
With three-quarters of UK homes and business using broadband, the market is seen to be maturing
The drive to create Broadband Britain has hit another milestone, as BT signed up the 15 millionth user to its high-speed network last week.
Ten years after broadband was first launched in the UK, it has now been taken up by around three-quarters of the UK's homes and small businesses. With Virgin Media serving another 4.2 million customers over its cable network, Britain boasts a higher take-up rate than other developed nations such as Germany and the US.
"Broadband Britain has been a success story with widespread availability, low prices and high take-up," Olivia Garfield, BT strategy director, said.
Virgin's predecessors, NTL and Telewest, offered the first broadband services in Britain in early 2000. BT itself only got serious about the technology in 2002, when former chief executive Ben Verwaayen slashed prices and speeded up the process of installing broadband equipment in its local telephone exchanges.
BT said it has been signing up around 5,000 new customers a day since 2002. That rate has slowed in the last couple of years, despite competition between rival operators, in a sign that the market is maturing. "There has been a price war in the fixed broadband market in the last two years, with the average price of a connection falling," Charlie Davies, analyst at Ovum, said.
"The speed of broadband penetration is starting to slow, and some markets are nearing saturation," he added. There are around 22m homes in the UK, and some 4m small businesses, so there should be plenty of potential customers for broadband providers to target. Data released last week showed 9 million people have never used the internet.
"Usage is closely linked with a number of socio-economic and demographic indicators, with those less educated and on lower incomes less likely to access the web," said Mark Williams from the Office for National Statistics. Worryingly for the industry, the reason given for not going online is typically a lack of interest.
BT's retail arm has slightly more than 5 million broadband customers. Nearly two-thirds of the 15 million customers on its network are choosing a rival internet service provider, such as TalkTalk or Sky, which use BT's infrastructure.
The UK lags behind other nations when it comes to broadband speeds. BT's largely copper-based network means that customers suffer lower speeds, depending on the distance they live from their exchange.
BT said its planned rollout of a fibre-optic broadband network over the next 18 months would deliver much faster speeds, although one-in-three homes will miss out.
"BT is now investing a further £2.5bn to roll out fibre broadband to two-thirds of the UK. This will help the UK climb the league tables for speeds, one of the few areas in which we don't lead the world," Garfield said.
Communications regulator Ofcom reported this month that retail revenues from internet and broadband services has been effectively flat since 2006, despite the rise in broadband users. Services such as TV-on-demand or faster services could drive revenues higher in the future, although Davies predicted that competitive pressures may keep bills down.
Many children get their first mobile phone on starting secondary school in September. We hunt down the best first deals for an 11-year-old
When to let your child have their first mobile phone is a contentious issue. But the chances are you'll join the majority of parents and get them one when they start secondary school at 11.
At this age many children start travelling to and from school alone and parents like the reassurance of knowing they can call home.
So with a bewildering plethora of handset and tariff options, where do you start to find the best deal?
Anthony Ball, director of mobile comparison website Onecompare.com says: "You can get a mobile contract for your child, but pay-as-you-go is probably the best move because of the level of control it gives parents. If your child uses the phone too much, the credit simply runs out until you decide to top it up, but they can still receive your texts and calls free."
There's also little point buying an expensive, flashy phone that could serve as a "mugging magnet".
Many parents will have an old phone they can pass on to their child or, if not, they can pick up a basic model for under £20 and put in a free sim card now available from most major networks, which often offer bundles of texts, call time and, if want, internet access typically starting with a £10 top-up per month. But which one?
"The difficulty of getting the first deal for an 11-year-old is that you have little idea of how, and how much, they are going to use their phone," Ball says. "But as these sims are free and don't tie you in to a long contract, you can try one and, if that doesn't suit, simply switch to another."
Earlier this month Tesco Mobile targeted young users with its launch of, arguably, the UK's cheapest sim-only monthly tariff which provides unlimited texts and 100 minutes of call time for £6 a month.
But it's not available instore – it's only sold online and over the phone, and is based on a one-month sim-only rolling contract paid by direct debit which means that customers can cancel and switch to other providers should they choose after 30 days.
It should particularly suit text-addicted youngsters. Tesco's research shows that 16- to 24-year-olds are the most prolific texters and, on a personal note, I've found that a sim, offering unlimited texts, is definitely the best money-saving mobile option for my two aged 12 and 16.
If, however, your child is likely to go over the 100-minute call-time allowance excess calls are charged at 20p per minute and the bill is added on to your £6 monthly direct debit, so the cost could quickly add up. As a safety measure, Tesco puts a £30 cap on the monthly amount you can run up on top of the £6 subscription.
If that limit is reached, the phone is barred for outgoing calls (not, importantly, from incoming calls) until the paying customer – the parent in our scenario – calls Tesco Mobile to verify the amount of credit they are willing to pay.
But this does highlight the difference between a standard pay-as-you-go deal, where your child cannot run up a bill, and a monthly contract, where they can.
Below are a selection of the pay-as-you-go free sim deals on offer for a £10 monthly top-up from major networks which may suit an 11-year-old's usage.
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