According to a terse press statement, the company at the same time
announced that its former resident director, Srinivasa Iyengar would
succeed Mr Foley.
We hardly expected it even after meeting the management on Monday,
said a source who is not authorised to comment on behalf of the firm,
told the Daily Nation.
Interestingly, various industry insiders speculated on a slow uptake of
its service by consumers that may force the third mobile operator who
stormed the market under the yu brand late last year to change tact if
it is to effectively challenge competition.
Despite launching the cheapest tariff late last year, the operator has been hard pressed to raise subscriber numbers.
This is even after charging Sh7.50 per minute (but billed per second) and Sh2 per SMS across all networks.
Subscribers to the network also get 75 cents bonus airtime per minute every time they receive a call from any local network.
The yu team has also come up with innovative ways to entice the
youthful core market of 18-35 age bracket, including the reservation of
numbers with the 0750 prefix.
EWK is 70 per cent owned by Johannesburg-based Econet Wireless
International while two local partners, Peter Kibiriti and city
stockbroker, Jos Konzolo, hold the remaining 30 per cent.
Market players will be keenly watching Mr Iyengar's game plan as the
company had promised to introduce a mobile phone money transfer
platform in conjunction with Opal Pay in the first quarter of the year
besides rolling out to other major towns.
The money transfer business has seen all mobile operators keen to invest on the add on service to retain subscribers.
So far, only Safaricom's M-Pesa is in the market as the banking
regulator, Central Bank scrutinises competing new services before
licensing them.
Zain's Zap service still awaits regulation while Telkom Kenya is keen
watching the unfolding events before investing in its own cash transfer
service.
Another reason advanced by insiders for Mr Foley's exit was the current
global credit crunch that has seen lenders tighten their credit
facilities.