Cheaper calls on the way as telcos agree to cut key rates

Mobile Phone users talks on his phone along the Streets of Nairobi. [ [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Mobile subscribers could soon enjoy lower voice calls following a move by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to cut mobile termination rates by 41 per cent.

This follows an out-of-court settlement by the leading telcos on an appeal lodged by Safaricom challenging an earlier decision by the regulator to reduce mobile termination rates - the charges levied by a mobile service provider on other providers for terminating calls in its network - by 87 per cent.

"The current mobile termination rate (MTR) and fixed termination rate (FTR) be revised from Sh0.99 to an interim rate of Sh0.58 (Revised Interim Rate)," reads the judgement from the Communications and Multimedia Appeals Tribunal delivered yesterday.