In 2014, Safaricom started testing 4G LTE in Kenya with sites in both Mombasa and Nairobi. 4G was initially available in Gigiri, Runda, Buruburu, Lower Kabete, Parklands in Nairobi, and Mombasa Island and Changamwe in Mombasa. Since then Safaricom has made a sizeable investment with the setting up of 4G sites across the country which currently stand at slightly over 500.
Despite this investment, the telco faced massive challenges in getting consumers to fully utilize the capabilities presented by 4G. The company for one faced the challenge of its users lacking devices with 4G capability. Safaricom rolled-out of 3G in addition to making 3G capable devices available. As such, there were few users on their network with 4G capable devices.
In addition, the price point for most devices with 4G capability was beyond the reach of most of its customers. The price of these devices has over the last year reduced, improving access for most consumers. The telco has also worked with OEMs in the introduction of entry-level 4G devices such as the Samsung Z2 and Huawei Y360, dramatically lowering the barrier of entry for such customers.
Quite a huge number of Safaricom customers still don’t find a use case for 4G something Safaricom finds challenging. With a firm 3G network, most users were able to have a good internet experience, considering the limited use many consumers have for mobile internet. This includes access to WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, for the most part.
To deal with this challenge Safaricom has focused on offering users on 4G better and improved speeds as well as an improved experience. Sim cards were another challenge for the firm, as most of them were 3G enabled and thus couldn’t offer consumers 4G capability. The company began offering free SIM swap services to its customers, where one could get a free 4G enabled sim card for free. The telco has since begun issuing only 4G enabled sim cards to customers.
4G is data-intensive, because of the higher resolution content users can access, with content loaded based on the kinds of speeds a user has, meaning with 4G you will most probably get HD video content. Many Safaricom subscribers already on 4G often lock their networks to 3G with the view of reducing the data consumption. Safaricom has seen this as a hurdle and is set to introduce a new set of data bundles targeting 4G customers.
According to Julius Kundu, Safaricom Senior Manager Data and Messaging, the 4G-specific bundles will allow customers to engage in heavy browsing and eliminate the Wi-Fi hunting tradition commonplace among Kenyans. The firm will also give customers who migrate to 4G for the first time free 4GB of data to allow them to enjoy the experience. The new bundles are 200MB for Kshs 100 on the weekly plan and 5GB for Kshs 1500 on the monthly data plan. Other data products remain the same.
UPDATE, 4.47pm: The story was updated to reflect the extent of new bundles. Only these two bundle will be introduced.
I am wondering how significant this will be. 1500 shs for 5GB can be compared to current bundle of 2000 shs for 7.5 GB. Interested to see how their new prices match up compared with current prices
I hope its not that stupid data table that has a very small difference from other users
It’s actually a great idea to have differentiated ,cheaper tariffs. The problem with it is that it doesn’t offer much compared to regular tariffs. If they can give me 40GB for less than 4k( Airtel ,orange is cheaper though but the 3G coverage is bad), then I’ll switch to safaricom for my heavier stuff,mainly streaming.
They cant give that much bundles. Their pipes will get really congested
I don’t think so. They have a lot capacity on 4G at the moment. That’s the reason they would give for not giving us such bundles. Even at 4k would be welcome.
[…] in a bid to get more customers to use its 4G network, is launching 4G-specific data bundles for them. Customers who are switching to 4G for the first time will get […]
[…] in a bid to get more customers to use its 4G network, is launching 4G-specific data bundles for them. Customers who are switching to 4G for the first time will get […]
Way too expensive. I have always wondered how safaricom prices their data. For sending memes and emojis Safaricom data is okay but what makes them think a heavy user spends about 5GB per month. There is a market of heavy data users that Safaricom continues to ignore to the advantage of Zuku and Faiba.
Yup! That is me you just described.
When I am away from office Wi-Fi and need to continually update the content here and edit something else. My best bet has been the 12GB bundle but that is too expensive at 3k, what some Zuku user may be paying monthly for unrestricted access. Surely 10-12GB data can be more affordable.
I’ll stick with Airtel 3G. Big disappoint from Safaricom.
Airtel 3g is much better than safaricom 4G
Nice http://drak.co
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