Safaricom and Airtel have been fined over poor service. Photo/business daily
Safaricom has been fined collectively Sh311.6 million for poor service.Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya all failed to meet the quality of service standards for the financial year 2015/16.Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that Safaricom, which was fined Sh270 million, is the only company that has paid up its fines. Airtel and Telkom Kenya were each fined Sh26.6 million and Sh14.9 million respectively.The CA statement said, “Safaricom has already paid. The other two licensees are yet to pay due to issues they have raised, which are being addressed”.The regulator did not elaborate on the nature of the outstanding “issues”. declined to tell Business Daily when and/or if the company would pay up the fines.However, Telkom Kenya chief executive Mr Aldo Mareuse said that his company had concerns over the transparency and the criteria used by the CA in testing compliance with quality standards.The fines levied are equivalent to 0.15 per cent of the gross turnover of the companies. The telcos paid a total fine of Sh190 million for the 2014/15 financial year, equivalent to 0.1 per cent of their turnover.The CA is reviewing how it measures quality of service. The regulator has proposed a new framework that will expand the survey beyond voice services to also check SMS and data.In April the authority had advertised for a firm to administer the new standards. It now says that it expects to award the tender this month. Four firms expressed interest in the contract.The regulator tests quality of voice services on eight different parameters, including speech quality, completed calls, call success rate and drop rate.