In a letter to John Waweru, Telkom's Managing Director, the CCK's Director General, Sammy Kirui, reminded Telkom that the provision of VoIP services by ISPs and other operators is no longer illegal.

"If Telkom has complaints against an ISP or indeed any other player in the industry, the logical course of action would be to lodge a complaint with CCK rather than take the law into its own hands," Kirui said.

The Sema International VoIP calling card service is a joint venture between ISP Kenya Limited and Canadian-based BMT North America. The Canadian company provides the technology backbone, while ISP Kenya provides a back-end Internet link for the service.

In February, Telkom Kenya disconnected the Sema service. Brian Longwe, the Chief Technology Officer at ISP Kenya Limited blamed Telkom for slowing Kenya’s telecommunications development by discontinuing a legal service out of fear of competition.

"Telkom prevented Kenyans from accessing affordable communication for all the years of its monopoly. Now they are blocking competitors from giving Kenyans the affordable services they need but are not offering an alternative," said Longwe.

Source: The East African Standard