In the spirit of remaining relevant in the mobile data market, Telkom Kenya announced a new product named Gbambe. It is a data subscription that lasts a cool month, and the good part, at least in theory, is that you only need KES 1000 to enjoy it.
Telkom has been pushing the plan on its socials, which comes at a time when competitors such as Safaricom have an edge because their users can now buy voice or data bundles that do not expire. It is also worth noting that this is not a new trick in the book: one carrier releases a good plan (they call it innovation), another follows suit with an even cheaper or better proposition overall.
Many people love the new Telkom plan, but what you may not know immediately is that Gbambe makes a lot of cuts, and has too many caveats to appeal to someone like yours truly, or groups that want some freedom in the manner they use their online data nuggets. And which are these missteps? â and we are glad you ask because typical to most of us, we do not have the time to go through the planâs terms and conditions to know that:
- You get a 1 GB daily allocation, which, should you exhaust it before that day ends, locks you out from the internet unless you buy another bundle or wait for the following distribution.
- This means that Telkom does not explicitly give you 30 GB at once, and I find that dishonest.
- It will get momentarily slow. You expected this: the speeds do not go full cycle because so many users have reported some form of throttling â which is not surprising (to me) because the carrier has done it before.
- In case you donât exhaust your allocation for the day or the month, the extra geebess do not roll over to the next day or month. Most plans have that feature, and it would be a pleasant perk for people who want to extend the longevity of their subscriptions. In Telkomâs defense, the kind of people who purchase such a huge amount of data bundles are not your typical users. These people obviously want to get access to data-heavy services and are likely to exhaust their allocations as intended, but if only speeds were consistently admirable, and considering the carrier has good coverage in major towns.
Telkom has a ton of data plans, from Freedom Bundles to Night Shift subscriptions, that make a lot of sense for folks who love working late into the night. Some may argue that Night Shift is a better proposition because it is not throttled (at least that is what we have since gathered since the product was launched a year or so ago).
In sum, Gbambe is a nice addition to a highly competitive data space in Kenya, but as usual, it fails to live to the expectations I had for it, and can only be better if it dropped speed limits and daily caps for a full 30GB allocation to use as a subscriber deems fit.
I thought this bundle wasn’t throttled. Guess I’ll just stick to Faiba.
Comment:I am glad you wrote about this.i subscribed to it thinking I will be getting the whole 30gb to use as I want..but now I have to purchase more data bundles everyday because the 1 is not enough
Telkom are thieves, i subscribed to that data plan and sometimes they have been giving me less than 1gb, so. On some instances they game me 246mbs, om another day 428mbs and when you call them they are very slow and unreliable. 4 days gone and am still waiting for them to refund my bundles. Telkom is a no.
Not liking it at all, this is there worst!
How throttled are we talking about here? Highest speeds., lowest., at what times.?
No internet connection some area.. gave complaint several time but till now not sorted out.kit was good before but nowadays its pathetic. So think to switching over to other network like Safaricom or airtel
This bundle is a scan,1gb is baby bundle in an era where,4g exists!Facts!
Keep up the Articles, they are really useful!
*Scam
Am surprised. All along I thought my pc had acquired a virus. Surely if I knew it had limitation.wud never have subscribed. They should have offered it as 1gb per day and not as 30gb. I am also likely to go back to faiba 25gb .
how is faiba, i am running a cyber and i am having hard time running internet. Thanks
I subscribed to the 30GB thinking it was a better deal than Safaricom but limiting my bundles to 1GB per day and with poor speeds and connectivity plus foregoing the said bundles if I don’t exhaust them has made me to be using Safaricom whenever these issues occur.Once my plan is exhausted I don’t think I will EVER subscribe to ANYTHING from Telkom if they don’t pull up their socks.I’m already warming up to Faiba.
I was loving this plan when 4 days into it my data stopped being renewed. Yes, some days within the 30 days period they won’t just renew your bundles and you will have to purchase data from somewhere else.
I think telecom has started stealing bundles I used to purchase 3 GB for 500ksh and I used to use it for three weeks and I don,t go to YouTube but now even a week doesb not finish without being exhausted better airtel a hundred times.
You should talk loudly if you know business. Do you know why safaricom and airtel don’t offer such offers. Because such plans don’t give out profits. Kama unataka vitu za Bure enroll back to university for free hot spots. Not even the setlite owning countries offer such a bundle plan. Shida ya wakenya hatutosheki you don’t even appreciate you got such a deal you want more bundles work hard get more money buy more bundles! Normally 1 GB goes for 99. It’s nice to have brains once in a while
stfu, insulent fool
Thank you so much for sharing. Was just about to purchase it!
Idiots fooled me!
QUESTION!! So after I’ve exhausted my 1gb for the first day, how long am I supposed to wait till I get the other 1gb?
Its my 3rd day using this 1gb daily plan. Im already frustrated. Its very slow, sometimes it works but most of the time it never works. Its a scam. Itl be a long more 27days. After that, ill go back to airtel đ
Somalia which is war ravaged offers 1gb at 50 Bob meanwhile in Kenya we are twice as expensive
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