In the wake of the Starlink onslaught in Kenya, Safaricom, which leads the country’s fixed data segment of the market with just under 40% market share, has announced a revision in the speeds it offers subscribers of its various data plans for both homes and businesses.
A statement from the company says that the change is so as “to meet the growing needs of individual and enterprise customers”.
Subscribers of Safaricom Home Fibre’s entry-level plan dubbed Bronze will see their speeds increase from 10Mbps to 15Mbps while those of its upper-level Diamond plan will see a five-fold increase in speeds from the 100Mbps they have been getting to a whopping 500Mbps.
Those who have need for even more speed can take advantage of Safaricom’s new gigabit internet plan dubbed Platinum which offers speeds of up to 1000Mbps/1Gbps.
Long time Home Fibre users will remember that the Platinum plan used to exist as the top-most tier when Safaricom rolled out Home Fibre before quietly being discontinued.
Pricing for the various plans remains unchanged. The new Platinum plan that offers the 1Gbps speeds is priced at Kshs 20,000 monthly.
| Plan | Old Speeds (Mbps) | New Speeds (Mbps) | Price (Kshs) |
| Bronze | 10 | 15 | 2,999 |
| Silver | 20 | 30 | 4,100 |
| Gold | 40 | 80 | 6,299 |
| Diamond | 100 | 500 | 12,499 |
| Platinum | 1,000 | 20,000 |
There’s an option for those in multiple-person households to merge their fixed data plans with their voice, mobile data and SMS plans under the Family Share package.
Safaricom has not mentioned if the increased speeds are still subject to its 1 terabyte fair usage policy, something that should be of concern to those eyeing the Platinum plan.
Traditionally, subscribers to the upper plans (Gold and Diamond) automatically get Secure Net, a cybersecurity service that Home Fibre users have been able to add to their plans separately, bundled with their purchases. It is not clear if that is the case with these changes and if the same will be extended to Platinum plan subscribers. We have reached out to Safaricom for clarification on the same and will update this article when we get a response.
On the business front, entrepreneurs are also getting increased speeds of up to 1Gbps.
“The Medium and Large Enterprises will enjoy competitive Dedicated Internet plans of up to 1Gbps that will give them the flexibility, reliability and uptime to meet their needs. These plans include features such 24/7 proactive monitoring, network visibility, burstability, backup options (over fibre, 5G or wireless connectivity), static IP support, embedded security and an impressive 99.99% uptime,” Safaricom says.
The last time Safaricom revamped speeds on its various fixed data plans was back in 2020 as part of its COVID-19 mitigation measures. The dawn of the pandemic had resulted in increased home internet usage as peopled sheltered in place thereby needing home internet access for needs ranging from entertainment and recreational activities to working, studying and other use cases.
Responding to those needs, Safaricom temporarily increased internet speeds across the board in 2020 before making the move permanent the following year. Bronze plan users saw an increase from the measly 5Mbps on offer then to 8Mbps. Silver plan subscribers got a bump to 20Mbps from 10Mbps. Gold plan subscribers moved from 20Mbps to 40Mbps and the then apex, the Diamond plan, saw its subscribers get speeds of up to 100Mbps, up from 40Mbps. Unlike now, however, these increases in speed came with an increase in pricing as well.
Between 2021 and now, Safaricom has quietly made changes to its fixed data plans that have seen Bronze plan subscribers bumped to 10Mbps as well as a section of its users being offered to be part of various enhanced packages outside the main four plans.
Safaricom says that its fixed data network now spans over 17,000 kilometres and has over 370,000 homes and 32,000 businesses connected to the information superhighway through it.
