Network connectivity firm the Wananchi Group has confirmed that its home entertainment brand Zuku has upgraded its entire cable network infrastructure to enable faster speeds, accommodate more traffic and improve the quality of customer experience.

According to the company the upgrade allows faster two-way high-speed broadband content mainly video, voice and data to be delivered to the home using a combination of fibre and coaxial cable.

"This has improved our customer user experience and allowed for future delivery of even higher capacity. Wananchi Group aims to invest a total of Kshs 2.5 billion to further expand and improve our entire network infrastructure including an increase in the bandwidth on the Customer Access Network and a boost to international capacity," says Group Chief Executive Officer Santiago Benedit.

In a statement, Benedit said customer consumption of bandwidth had increased by 50%. This, combined with growth in subscriber numbers, required strategic investment in infrastructure to support existing and new subscribers.

"We have improved our infrastructure significantly and currently have 2,100 kilometres of fibre which ensures that our entire network has a wider reach to cover a larger geographical area and connect more customers to our unlimited internet," he said.

The Wananchi Group references the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Sector Statistics Report for the period between July and September 2015 as stating that the number of broadband subscriptions grew by 19.3% to reach 6.35 million.

According to the CA Report, broadband speeds less than or equal to 2Mbps recorded the highest numbers of subscriptions while those less than 256 kbps recorded the least number of subscriptions.

"The data market in the country experienced significant growth in terms of subscriptions. All the sub-categories of data service demonstrated growth apart from the terrestrial wireless service which recorded a drop in the number of subscriptions. This was due to the ongoing migration of wireless subscribers to fiber network by some of the major data providers," CA says in its report.

"There is increased demand for reliable internet connection and speeds. With this upgrade our customers will be able to do much more, in a shorter time such as live streaming of their favourite shows, movies, music, among others," Benedit said.

Wananchi Group continues to monitor increasing levels of competition within Kenya's telecommunications services space, specifically around the home networking and broadband market.

In early February Liquid Telecom announced its intention to begin connecting homes and buildings to its fibre network, targeting 10,000 homes in Nairobi.

The network firm said it aims to compete more aggressively within the home broadband market.

Executive leadership at Wananchi Group confirmed that the company welcomes competition within Kenya's telecommunications space saying it drives innovation, performance and economic growth.