Nairobi, Thursday 3 July, 2008
Safaricom’s 11 million customers can now enjoy Prepaid Hotspot bundles for a monthly rate from as low as Kshs 999/-. The bundles will enable customers to have fast and efficient internet access on their phones and Safaricom broadband modems enabling them to enjoy internet and email access anywhere on the Safaricom network.
The prepaid monthly bundles are available in different packages to cater for a diversity of customer needs. They range from 300MB for Kshs 999/-, 700MB for Kshs 1,999/- and 1GB for Kshs 2,499/-. Along with these, additional bundles are available for heavier users as well as for shared residential and business usage. The service enables customers to enjoy the most competitive rates per MB on a plan that also enables them to change bundles depending on their consumption habits.
To enjoy the service, no contracts are required and customers can simply top up their phones or modems using the already widely available top up cards, and by sending an SMS to specified short codes. The service is available to customers with data enabled phones as well as through a plug and play 3G/EDGE broadband modem retailing at Kshs 9,999/-. The modem is for use with a laptop or desktop and enables access to broadband internet at maximum speeds of between 3.2 Megabytes per second (Mbps) and 7.2 Mbps. This is four times faster than GPRS/EDGE (General Packet Radio Service / Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) speeds; a technology currently deployed by most of the local mobile phone service providers.
Safaricom anticipates that the prepaid broad band service will prove popular with residential and mobile customers for internet, email and data access at the office, home and on the move.
Michael Joseph, Chief Executive of Safaricom, says that the 3G broadband experience is better than working on a standard fixed-line broadband connection.
“Our prepaid broadband service is an important step forward for Safaricom and it reaffirms our commitment to meet all the communication requirements of our customers and ensures that more Kenyans can enjoy affordable internet at bargain prices. This is the fastest, wireless mobile communication to the Internet, for your phone, your laptop or your handheld computer devices.”
Initially the 3G broad band service was available only in Nairobi, but it has now been rolled to the country’s second major urban centre, Mombasa. In areas where 3G is unavailable, customers will be automatically switched to the Safaricom EDGE/GPRS network, which is available across the entire Safaricom Network countrywide.
Safaricom is the second company to offer 3G/HSPDA (Third generation High Speed Downlink Data Packet Access), broadband internet access in East Africa, following Vodacom Tanzania’s launch last year.
Safaricom has invested a total of Shs 1.8 billion ($ 30 million dollars) in license fees and infrastructure development to launch the service.
|
