Yesterday, Equity Bank launched Equitel, a mobile payment and banking platform. Equity also announced that the number of subscribers has hit 1 million users, with insiders quoting an unconfirmed figure, 69%, as active subscribers acquired mostly through issuing SIM cards for free to Equity Bank’s 8.7 million customers. Equitel is offering users a choice with SIM cards ranging from standard size SIM, micro, nano and thin SIM based on their requirements. The micro and nano SIM will sell for Kshs 50 with the thin-SIM selling for Kshs 500 inclusive of Kshs 200 airtime.
While we are well aware of what Equitel will offer in terms of mobile money and banking services, what about the other services? Equitel users will be using the 0763 and 0764 prefixes besides riding on Airtel’s network infrastructure in the delivery of their services. So, how do the services compare to those offered by other mobile network operators and in particular the market leader Safaricom?
VOICE
The charges for voice calls for both on-net and off-net are priced at Kshs. 4 for both Safaricom and Equitel.
Correction: Safaricom on-net charges are Kshs. 4 not Kshs. 3, as shown in the above image.
DATA
The data offerings of Equitel are pricier than those offered by other operators. It costs 1 MB of data costs Kshs. 4 without having to register for data bundles, which is the same pricing point offered by Safaricom. However, subscription to data bundles on Equitel proves a little more expensive. below is a comparison
SMS
SMS charges for a 160 character text are pretty standard where SMS on-net on Equitel are charged at Kshs. 1 per SMS which, is the same charges across networks. Safaricom charges Kshs. 1 for on-net and off-net SMS.
