Safaricom, a major telecommunications firm in Kenya, has implemented significant revisions to its 4G Home Wi-Fi product in order to overcome adoption challenges. Launched in 2019, the 4G Home Wi-Fi product was intended to provide fixed wireless connectivity to regions beyond Safaricom’s Home Fibre coverage. Nonetheless, the product has had minimal uptake due to insufficient customer awareness and certain individuals’ belief that the pricing is excessively expensive.
To address these issues, Safaricom has made several changes to the product, including a name change to 4G Wi-Fi for both home and business applications. The company has also adjusted the pricing and package model to offer customers more value, with the changes being implemented since March 2023.
The new pricing model involves a shift from speed-based to volume-based packages for existing and new products. The new products will have lower volumes to boost profitability, and Safaricom has removed the guaranteed minimum speeds, also referred to as the Guaranteed Bit Rate, for the new packages.
The old pricing model included four packages with varying speeds, volumes, and prices. The highest package, which offered unlimited data at a speed of 5 Mbps, cost KES 5,799. The lowest package, which offered a volume of 200 GB at a speed of 3 Mbps, cost KES 3,699.
Under the new pricing model, Safaricom is offering two fixed wireless access product offerings, both with a speed of 5 Mbps. The packages are priced at KES 3,000 for a volume of 90 GB and KES 6,300 for a volume of 200 GB. The prices of the routers, however, remain the same, with the Adrian router costing KES 10,000 and the Huawei model costing KES 11,000.
In addition to these changes, Safaricom has consolidated all its Fixed Wireless products for Home and Enterprise environments to simplify the 4G/Fixed LTE proposition. Customers will consume the same products, and what separates them will be their individual customer journeys.
Safaricom’s changes to its 4G Wi-Fi product are a step in the right direction in addressing concerns that have hindered its adoption. With the new pricing model, customers can get more value for their money, and the volume-based packages are likely to be more appealing to customers than the speed-based packages. These changes, coupled with Safaricom’s extensive coverage, make the 4G Wi-Fi product an attractive option for customers in areas not covered by Safaricom’s Home Fibre product.
This is not appealing at all.