Liquid Telecom has announced that it will start connecting homes and buildings to its fibre network as part of its 2016 strategy, and will target 10,000 homes in Nairobi.

The company has tested its home service in two regions in the city and has confirmed it is now ready to expand to other areas.

In a presentation to the press, Ben Roberts, CEO Liquid Telecom Kenya unveiled Hai (meaning 'I am alive' in Swahili), the company's home market brand.

The brand will include the Video on Demand (VoD) product, Ipidi and online backup service CrashPlan.

"We have done a lot of fibre to the home in other markets in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Rwanda. In Kenya we are focussing on lots of flats and we will be doing around 10,000 homes in the city," Roberts said.

The home broadband market is seen to be dominated by Zuku, a Wananchi Online internet company that holds approximately 48% share of the market according to the Communication Authority of Kenya.

Liquid has confirmed its packages will be competitively priced to give it an edge over Zuku. Liquid's lowest package will retail at Kshs3,500 per month (US$35) and offer 10Mbps speeds. Zuku's 15Mbps speed is currently priced at Kshs4,800 (US$48).

Those who pick Liquid's 25Mbps plan will have access to online streaming service Ipidi TV, included in the pricing. This package will retail at Kshs5,000 (US$50).

Liquid will also aggressively offer connectivity to more cities with Kisumu, Garissa, Nakuru, Mombasa and Eldoret in its scope, and broaden its delivery of WiFi connectivity.

Ipidi now available

The company has also announced that Ipidi TV is currently available on its network in the two regions in Nairobi and that the offering will be officially launched to the public in April.

The Ipidi set top boxes are also going to retail in Kenya by April this year.

A source from the company said that the pricing for Ipidi might range between US$6 to US$8, a price point for Netflix services. The Ipidi app is already available in the Google Play store.