Consumers are up in arms against the recent move by Mobile service Provider Safaricom to cap the data bundle transfer service known as “Sambaza Bundles” to 20MB. The move was introduced with the onset on new data bundle prices and meant to reign in on internet bundles resellers popularly known as “Bundles Mwitu”. Subscribers could previously transfer upto 999MB allowing the resellers to thrive on cheaper prices.
According to the petition posted on Change.org, the capping affects the consumers who genuinely want to transfer bundles to their different devices. The Petition further asks the Communications Authority of Kenya to study the pricing of data bundles and place regulatory measures to protect consumers from the dominant player.
Remove the 20 MB cap on data bundle transfer, know as ‘Sambaza’
It comes as a shock to many users that Safaricom has put a 20 MB cap to data bundle transfers, know as ‘Sambaza Bundle’. The limits seems to have been implemented following the launch of newer, ‘cheaper’ data bundle tariffs introduced sometimes towards the end of February 2015.
There was not clear explanation given as to why the change now, but the new limits affect normal users who normally transfer data bundles between different SIM cards in their devices.
I urge Safaricom to rethink this decision and quickly reverse it. We are also appealing to the Communications Authority of Kenya to study the data bundle pricing and aggressively put regulatory measures on this business so as to protect customers against noncompetitive business practices from the dominant market player.
Of great concern to most data users is the ‘expiry’ of purchase data bundles after a specified period, a usually unreasonably short period determined solely by the operator. This practice need to be regulated so as to protect consumers from loss of purchase service.
The recent changes in the pricing, terms and conditions of internet bundles from Safaricom continue to elicit sharp reactions with many complaining on various platform of the expiration periods stipulated hinder the usage of the service.
