Safaricom has made some new and important announcements about its 4G Wi-Fi product. The service, which has been available for some time, targets customers who do not have access to its unlimited Home Fibre product. It makes sense for such customers because they are likely covered by the telco’s extensive 4G network, which has surpassed the 97 percent mark in Kenya and will likely reach 100 percent in the near future.
These customers need a product they can use at home for work and entertainment, as many people now work from home, whether it’s a desk job or content creation. To complete these tasks, it is a good idea to purchase a Wi-Fi package that meets those needs. As mentioned, you do not have to live in an area served by Home Fibre to enjoy a fixed internet connection.
Now, the first thing Safaricom has done is adjust the price of the 4G Wi-Fi routers. Admittedly, they were expensive at the beginning, so it is a welcome move to see the prices come down. This may appeal to people who hesitated to subscribe to the product due to budget constraints.
The Huawei Router now costs KES 7K down from KES 11K. The Adrian Router now costs KES 6K, down from KES 10K. We recommend getting the cheaper of the two because the routers do the same job, and you will not lose anything by choosing a value one.
Safaricom says customers can apply online for the router, pay for it, and have it delivered to their homes for setup. However, the process is cumbersome and takes some hours or days to complete. To make things easier, you can walk into a Safaricom Shop and pick one for yourself. The team at the centre will set it up for you. Once you get home, all you need to do is plug in and play.
The two routers come with 30GB of free data, which is valid for 30 days. This complements the package you choose.
Speaking of packages, they have been adjusted as follows:
| Plan (KES) | Daily Data Volume | Data Volume per month |
| 3000 | 105 GB | 90 GB |
| 4100 | 150 GB | 120 GB |
| 6300 | 240 GB | 200 GB |
| 12500 | 540 GB | 400 GB |
You might have noticed that these packages are not the same as the ones we talked about a few days ago. This is because Safaricom has adjusted them, again, from two plans to four. Ideally, this gives customers more options to choose from, that is, customers who are on a budget can pick the cheapest one, while those who need more data volumes can pick the premium package. In this case, the prices range from KES 3000 to KES 12500 and allocated data ranges from 90 GB to 400 GB.
To note, these packages are limited, meaning once you exhaust them, you will have to buy a new bundle. Here is where the difference between Home Fibre is evident because the latter is unlimited (it has a fair usage policy that ranges from 500 GB to 1TB). Still, it is a great solution for customers who do not have access to Fibre.
Another thing that customers should remember is that all four packages are capped at 5 Mbps. These speeds are not the fastest, but serviceable nonetheless. For instance, sites such as streaming service Netflix do not need a lot of bandwidth to run. You can also play YouTube videos with these speeds (just set them to 720p for a better experience). Also, look at it this way: that the speeds will actually afford you an extended subscription because the allocated data will not be exhausted faster.
There are instances when these bundles will be exhausted before the month ends. In such cases, the telco has options for customers to replenish them so they can continue working or entertaining themselves.
At the same time, some customers have complained that the people they share the package with sometimes overindulge and exhaust the data before the one-month period ends. This, too, can be addressed. You can allocate how much data should be used each day. For instance, you can set a maximum of 3GB of data per day, and for a 90 GB package, that can go up to 30 days. All of this can be done from the 4G Wi-Fi option in the MySafaricom app.
Finally, you can dial *400*3# to manage 4G Wi-Fi subscriptions.
