NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 3 – Safaricom has taken a page out of Airtel’s book by introducing a bundled offering inclusive of voice, data and SMS, at a time when its market share continues to decline.
Safaricom said Tuesday that it was introducing a post-payment service, available to subscribers on a 30-day basis with any unused resources rolling over to the next month.
The telco says the plans will be offered at five price points ranging from a Sh1,000 plan with 5GB data, 400 minutes and unlimited SMS, to a Sh10,000 plan that offers unlimited data, voice and SMS.
The move may be intended to contend with Airtel’s Unliminet plan, whose bundles offering include daily, weekly and monthly plans. Its monthly plans include provisions such as Sh2,000 which comes with 20GB data, 1,200 minutes and 10,000 SMS and Sh1,000 which gives customers 8GB data, 400 minutes and 2,000 SMS.
Data by Communication Authority of Kenya reveals that Safaricom’s share of mobile subscribers has been on the decline.
In the year ended June 2019, the telco’s subscriber number fell to 63.5 percent – down from 65.4 percent a year earlier – making it the lowest market share it has recorded in the last decade.
This is even as Airtel steadily won over its customers.
Airtel’s aggressive campaign also saw it cut Safaricom’s market share on-call minutes to 56.4 percent in June 2018, from 79.6 percent in June 2017.
The change comes at a period when Airtel has sustained an aggressive hunt for subscribers, cutting Safaricom’s market share on-call minutes to 56.4 percent in June from 79.6 percent in June 2017.
