Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telco, has launched a brand new product that would reshape how prospects pay for cellular web. The product, known as B-Stay and launched on Wednesday, permits customers to purchase information by the hour as a substitute of the standard megabyte or gigabyte bundles.
Costs vary from KES 20 ($0.16) for 1 hour to KES 150 ($1.16) for six hours, with utilization tied strictly to time, and never information quantity.
The transfer marks Safaricom’s boldest try but to deal with long-running buyer frustration over information bundles depleting too quick. For years, Kenyans have complained that their cellular information disappears unpredictably, regardless of the operator’s efforts to elucidate utilization patterns and roll out a variety of bundle choices. By shifting the unit of consumption from quantity to time, Safaricom is betting it could restore predictability, promising prospects readability over prices whether or not they’re streaming, scrolling, or downloading.
The brand new product, examined since July, additionally comes with restrictions. Safaricom has disabled hotspotting, and a fair-usage coverage means heavy customers may even see speeds throttled in the event that they cross undisclosed thresholds—an strategy Safaricom has beforehand utilized to its fibre and 5G Wi-Fi companies. With out transparency, the chance is that the identical “quick depletion” complaints resurface in a unique kind.
No different Kenyan operator at the moment affords a totally time-based cellular information product of this scale. Airtel Kenya, Telkom Kenya, and Faiba worth bundles are cheaper per GB, however all stay volume-based. Airtel’s hourly bundles, for example, are capped by information, whereas Faiba’s self-care menu reveals no uncapped time-based classes.
Safaricom, in contrast, has leaned on its infrastructure benefit. Its 4G community covers about 96% of the nation, greater than any rival. Safaricom has additionally expanded 5G protection past main cities into rural areas, whereas Airtel’s 5G stays concentrated in cities. That attain issues for time-based merchandise, which depend upon steady, high-quality connections to ship worth.
Safaricom has spent years tuning its networks, including spectrum at 700 and 900 MHz, densifying 4G websites, and testing 5G community slicing. These investments strengthen the case for B-Stay, however additionally they increase expectations about whether or not the brand new product will lastly ease information depletion anxiousness.
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