* Rivals complain about Safaricom dominance
* Regulator to amend telecoms competition law
* Safaricom dismisses critics, says does not abuse position
By Duncan Miriri
NAIROBI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Safaricom dominatesthe Kenyan mobile market, sweeping up more than 90 percent ofrevenues in areas such as voice calls and text messaging,according to regulator data that could further fuel a debateabout competition in the industry.
Rivals like Bharti Airtel and some officials have complainedthat Safaricom's dominance stifles competition. France's Orange is seeking to sell its Kenya operation, becoming thesecond international operator to quit the country after India'sEssar Telecoms sold its Yu business last year.
The data obtained by Reuters comes as the East Africannation is amending the telecom sector's competition law to givethe regulator more powers to penalise companies deemed to beabusing dominant positions in the industry, though what wouldconstitute such abuse is as yet unclear.
Safaricom, in which Britain's Vodafone has a40-percent stake, has dismissed accusations it hamperscompetition, saying it does not abuse its dominance.
Safaricom's revenues from calls amounted to a 91.63 percentmarket share in 2014, while its closest competitor, Airtel, had8.33 percent, according to the data obtained from theCommunications Authority of Kenya (CAK).
In text or short messaging services, Safaricom had more thana 90-percent share of total market revenues from that segment,the regulator said.
In mobile data, or internet services, Safaricom's revenueswere 85.50 percent of the market share in 2014, while Airtel had14.43 percent, Orange had 0.01 percent and Equitel, operated byEquity Bank's subsidiary Finserve, 0.06 percent.
The figures for Orange are for 2013 as it had not submittedaudited accounts for 2014 to the regulator, CAK said.
The regulator usually issues quarterly figures for number ofsubscribers, which give Safaricom a 67 percent share of Kenya's35 million users in June. It also gives traffic volumes forareas such as calls.
Asked about the regulator's revenue breakdown, SafaricomChief Executive Bob Collymore told Reuters: "We don't recognisethat data." He said subscriber numbers and network traffic werea better gauge of how the firm was performing.
M-PESA
The data did not detail revenue from phone financialservices, where Safaricom's M-Pesa service is the most popularoffering, allowing users to pay bills or send money even usingthe most simple mobile phone device.
Analysts say this service draws customers to use Safaricom'swider telecoms services over its rivals.
Eric Musau, analyst at Standard Investment Bank, said thedominance of a single operator was hurting competition bydriving out rivals like Essar and Orange.
He said, however, that some smaller operators were failingdue to inadequate capital, frequent shareholding changes and alack of a sound strategy for the local market. "I would say oneplayer had a better strategy than the rest," he added.
CAK said in August that it was amending the telecom sector'scompetition law, but said it was not targeting Safaricom or anyother company. It did not aim to penalise any company just forbeing dominant, but only if there was abuse of its position inthe market.
The regulator's head, Francis Wangusi, said at the time thenew regulations would break down the telecoms sectors intosegments including mobile and fixed voice, data, text messagingand mobile money transfer services.
"It is too early for us to come up to say 'Safaricom you aredominant', because Safaricom can be dominant in certain markets,but not dominant in others," he said. "In all these markets, wewould not apply the same rules," he added.
Safaricom has opposed the proposed changes saying they coulddeter investments by targeting large firms.
Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youseffi said the current marketsituation was limiting innovation and consumer choice anddriving operators out of the country. "The sector is unable toattract new or incremental investments from other internationalplayers," he told Reuters.
Orange Kenya gave no specific comment on the figures.
(Editing by Edmund Blair and Pravin Char)
Vodafone (VOD)
