Safaricom Reduces Airtime, Data Prices Amid Heightened Competition From Airtel

A fierce competition between telecommunication companies Safaricom and Airtel has forced the former to reduce its PostPay prices.

Safaricom announced the changes on Monday, December 5, reversing a price increase that was implemented in July 2021.

The changes have favoured Safaricom subscribers on PostPay and All-in-One plans customers enjoy lower prices.

Following the changes, those using Go Monthly 1K plan will pay Ksh 1,000, down from Ksh 1,050 while those the 2K plan will part with Ksh 2,000 down from Ksh 2,100.

Those on the 3K plan will pay Ksh 3,000 down from Ksh 3,150; Safaricom users on the 5K plan will pay Ksh 5,000 down from Ksh 5,200.

Those on the 10K plan will pay Ksh 10,000, down from Ksh 10,430, CEO Peter Ndegwa announced.

At the same time, Go Monthly customers will enjoy free 2GB YouTube every month and will be able to use their minutes to call across all local networks as well as China, India, USA and Canada.

“By consolidating our monthly plans, we seek to simplify our product offering while enabling our customers to enjoy a digital lifestyle in an affordable manner,” Ndegwa said.

This comes amid a heightened competition from its main rival, Airtel, which is seeking to end Safaricom’s dominance of the voice market.

Recently, data from the Communications Authority (CA) showed that Safaricom’s dominance of the market fell to 64.2 percent, a 1.9 percentage points drop from a similar period ended June.

Airtel grew its share to a record high of 33.7 percent, a rise of 1.6 percentage points.

The drop in Safaricom’s market share saw talk-time across all the mobile networks fall to 18.9 billion minutes from 19.2 billion minutes.

“The decline is attributed to the increased preference and uptake of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services especially in urban areas where fast Internet connections are readily available,” the CA said.