Kenya’s largest mobile service provider, Safaricom, has abandoned its unlimited 3G data bundle offer, amid its allegations that some users have hogged bandwidth.
Safaricom was the first telecommunications company to commercially launch a mobile phone 3G network in the country, in October 2007, delivering high speed mobile data of 7.2 Mbps.
Subsequently, it launched the unlimited 3G data bundles last year for mobile broadband users, at a cost of Sh200 a day, Sh1000 a week or Sh3000 a month.
But the company has decided to cut back on its unlimited data bundle offer to focus on quality rather than quantity of service.
“As a business, we have found it necessary to focus our energies on providing quality data access to the majority of our internet users,” said Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore.
“This means that we have to sacrifice the provision of our unlimited bandwidth to a minority whose usage has had a negative impact on the overall data experience,” he added.
Collymore went on to say that the position of the telco is that unlimited internet offerings are better suited for a fixed broadband services such as fibre or Wimax rather than 3G, which is a shared resource.
Safaricom’s change in heart comes as Kenya’s number of internet users has surged.
According to second quarter internet and communications technology sector statistics from the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), the country had 17.38 million internet users by the end of 2011, a 21.55% increase from 14.3 million in September 2010.
The CCK said the scale of the increase was owing to an influx of cheap smartphones like the Huawei Ideos, which reportedly sold more than 130,000 pieces last year, and the affordable internet packages that began in July last year for users of smartphones and mobile devices.
Also, Safaricom claims to have over 5 million internet users and has sold over 1 million data enabled modems.
However, Kenya's Airtel, a close competitor to Safaricom, and Orange could benefit from Safaricom's withdrawal from unlimited data bundles, since both now also offer 3G networks, modems, and unlimited data deals, which may see them cash in on customers now seeking an alternative to Safaricom's abandoned service.
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