A few months back, Liquid Telecom announced the launch of its retail brand, Hai which will offer fibre connections to homes and small businesses. Hai will also see the creation of free WiFi hotspots to allow more users to access the internet with Kshs. 100 Million earmarked for this project. At the time there were 200 free hotspots by the company in Nairobi,Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kajiado, and Nyeri. The number has since grown to 350 hotspots across the country with more commission to launch.
Liquid has now announced the launch of an App referred to as the The Liquid Telecom Wi-Fi Finderapp, to allow users find the free wifi hotspots. The app will show the locations of the free Wi-Fi as well as the address and contact details for each hotspot. The Wi-Fi project offers users a minimum of 15 minutes of free use to unlimited free use after which they pay a small fee to access. The Liquid Telecom Wi-Fi Finder app is available for download on the Google Play for Android devices and from the Apple Store for iOS devices
The model is already under implementation in Nakuru under the Bila Waya street Wi-Fi. Bila Waya, a partnership between the State House Digital Team, Nakuru County Government and Liquid Telecom, covers a 10km radius from the central business district, with a capacity of 1GB per second. In 2014, Liquid Telecom announced plans to connect the 47 counties in Kenya with fiber optic at a cost of Kshs. 4.4 Billion with 40 of the 47 counties currently connected. This is not the first time that a company has introduced free WiFi hotspots in Kenya. Wazi WiFi was an initiative of Wananchi Group seeking to allow users to access the internet on a single sign-on. Wazi had deployed over 400 Wi-Fi access points with 200 in Nairobi but its no longer existent. Pricing of Wazi Wi-Fi was at Kshs. 50 a day or 500 a month per device.
