Kenyans will have to wait longer for mobile calling rates to come down, after the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) board failed to approve the new charges as expected.

Mobile phone operators, CCK and the Ministry of Information had already agreed back in May to reduce the Mobile Termination Rates (MTR), which is the amount of money mobile phone operators pay each other for calls originating from rival networks.

All these stakeholders had agreed to cut the rate from the current Ksh2.20 (US$ 0.03) to Sh1.60 (USD 0.02) a minute, effective July 1st. The cut rates were arrived at after Safaricom compromised on their initial call for a high fee, while on the other hand CCK and the operators (Airtel, Telcom Kenya and Yu) were keen on Sh1.44 (US$0.017)

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This delay will hurt the smaller operators, and Madhur Taneja, Essar’s (Yu) country manager was quoted saying: “Yu Mobile is disappointed by the delayed implementation of the reduced MTR.”

Safaricom on the other hand said: “As far as Safaricom is concerned, there is no emergency.  The CCK Board is set to consider the issue in due course alongside representations and stakeholders to advise the industry accordingly.”

CCK’s acting director general Francis Wangusi said the CCK board could not divulge reasons for the delay.

Safaricom, being the dominant operator with a 67.7 percent market share, has been the only operator benefiting from the current termination rate.

According to CCK, Safaricom earned Sh868.9 million from the rate in the three months to December while its main rival Airtel paid out Ksh544.2 million (USD 6.56million), Essar Ksh192.5 million (USD 2.32million) and Telkom Kenya Ksh21.3 million (USD 0.26million).