How Safaricom's New Wi-Fi Plans Stack Up Against Starlink's Rising Dominance.
How Safaricom's New Wi-Fi Plans Stack Up Against Starlink's Rising Dominance.
Safaricom is the leading telecommunications and internet service provider in Kenya. However, the company has faced increased competition in the last few weeks due to the availability of Starlink in the country. This has prompted Safaricom to adjust its internet prices without increasing them.
The Competitive Shift: How Starlink is Shaking Things Up
Starlink is a high-speed broadband internet service that operates in remote areas globally. In July 2023, Starlink was introduced in Kenya and just recently, Safaricom has begun to see Starlink as a potential threat.
This shift in perspective may be related to a previous incident where Safaricom was accused of intentionally slowing down internet speeds, possibly to hinder access to information about abductions and killings in the region due to protests.
Because of this, people started buying Starlink and recommending that others do so. Starlink had faster speeds than Safaricom for a cheaper price, for instance, speeds ranged between 150Mbps to 200Mbps which is very impressive, whereas Safaricom only had speeds up to 100Mbps.
Safaricom, realizing that Starlink posed a threat, wrote to the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) to request the removal of Starlink from the Kenyan market. They claimed that Starlink was a threat to Kenyan telecoms, but this move backfired.
Subsequently, Safaricom had to come up with a new plan. Their strategy involved increasing their internet speed to surpass Starlink's speeds without raising prices.
Safaricom New WI-Fi Plans, What Has Changed?
I was pleasantly surprised by the significant increase in Safaricom's Wi-Fi speeds without any additional cost. As a subscriber to one of their plans, I appreciate that the upgrades are automatic, meaning users won't have to pay extra for the improved speeds.
A comparative analysis of previous and current internet speeds, accompanied by the corresponding pricing adjustments, is presented in the table below.
Safaricom has successfully introduced the family plan, seamlessly combining mobile voice, SMS, data, and home internet. This enables families to conveniently share a single internet connection across multiple devices.
You can share up to 5 members with the family plan as follows:
- The 15Mbps plan is designed to accommodate up to 5 devices on the same network. It also provides 5GB of mobile backup data and includes 400 minutes of voice calls per month.
- 100Mbps plan- This plan confidently supports up to 50 devices and includes a backup of 15GB of mobile data. Additionally, it confidently comes with a closed-user group voice plan, allowing three users unlimited voice communication every month.
This is one of the ways Safaricom aims to remain competitive in the evolving market. They should also strive to stabilize their network, as one blogger, in particular, using Safaricom internet has frequently complained of constant outages.
The company's attempt to push Starlink out of the country was unfavorable; instead, they should welcome other players for healthy competition.
They should improve their customer service because it allows users to easily seek assistance if needed.
Coverage and Accessibility: Who is Leading in Kenya
In the last financial year, Safaricom expanded its coverage to 3000 kilometers, bringing the total coverage across the country to more than 17,000 kilometers, which is quite impressive.
Safaricom also reported an increase of 110,000 new subscribers in both homes and businesses, solidifying its position as the leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Kenya.
This resulted in 370,000 homes and 320,000 businesses for the fiscal year of 2024. Safaricom has always been expanding in major cities and even smaller towns, making it the number one internet service provider in Kenya.
When it comes to coverage in rural and underserved regions, Starlink would be the best choice because Safaricom hasn’t covered most of the rural parts of the country as this would be expensive. With Starlink, all you need is the Starlink kit and a payment plan and that's it, you have high-speed internet access wherever you are in the country.
Amid the invasion of Starlink, Safaricom will speed up its infrastructure rapidly to keep up with the competition, actually, a few days ago the company claimed to have been in talks with Starlink for a potential partnership to combine Safaricom’s existing services with the satellite technology.
Speed Test: Which ISP Delivers the Fastest Internet Speeds?
As of publishing this post I still don’t have my hands on the Starlink kit to extensively test the speeds but based on a few YouTube videos I have watched Starlink speeds are fast but only on the download speeds, the uploads are very slow ranging between 8 and 10 Mbps while the downloads ranged around 150Mbps. But what’s worse has to be the latency of around 150ms.
I have the 15Mbps Safaricom package, and it has been consistently reliable. However, when multiple users are connected, the speed decreases slightly. The latency is also better than what we experienced with Starlink.
Customer Support and Reliability
I've been a Safaricom Internet customer for a long time, and their customer service has been excellent. Once, I needed a new router because the old one was single-band and slow. When I contacted Safaricom about the issue, they delivered a new router and installed it for free the next day at 9:00 am.
Currently, I cannot compare Starlink's customer service to that of Safaricom since I haven’t had a chance to use Starlink or see users complain about any issue.
The Future of Internet in Kenya: What to Expect in the Starlink Era
Starink entry into the Kenyan market has awakened Safaricom since the company was in its comfort zone by not doing anything about its internet for a while now, they were so scared of Starlink that they even went to the CAK to lock out Starlink.
While visiting the United States, President Ruto commented on the issue of Starlink, stating that the CEO of Safaricom was not pleased with him for involving other figures like Elon Musk. Musk responded to this by saying, "As the President of Kenya mentioned, Starlink compels local competitors to offer better services."
Safaricom has upped their game in the 5G rollout since they were the first telecom to launch 5G in the country back in October 2022, as of writing this post, Safaricom has a total number of 803 sites as of March 2024 overtaking Airtel which has 690 sites.
On the other hand, Starlink is a satellite internet service, while 5G is primarily a cellular network technology.
However, when these two technologies work together, they can provide fast connections with low latency. This is especially significant because latency is the main issue with Starlink.
Competition is crucial, especially in the telecom industry. We don’t need to rely on one telecom company as this would create a monopoly. A prime example is Starlink and Safaricom. Due to competition, Safaricom improved their services without raising prices.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the rivalry between Safaricom and Starlink is likely to intensify which would benefit us as consumers, even other ISPs in the market will join the race to provide better services.
The adjustments made by Safaricom in increasing their internet speeds are commendable. Also, their customer service is top-notch, and I can't complain about the 5G rollout.
I think Starlink should work on their latency, however, it was rumored that Starlink was preparing to build a ground station antennae in Nairobi, if this is true, then we can see better upload speeds and improved latency.
Before deciding on a provider between Starlink and Safaricom, ensure that you have unique needs. For instance, if you primarily use the internet for browsing, streaming movies, and social media, then Starlink may not be necessary.
However, if you are a gamer, frequently stream high-quality content, or travel often, then Starlink would be the better choice for you.
