AccessKenya to offer 24 per cent discount on internet charges

AccessKenya became the latest internet service provider to promise to lower charges following the arrival of international fibre optic cables.

The ISP said it was planning to implement an immediate 24 per cent discount on its internet charges and promised higher discounts once connections to international fibre optic links went live by the end of next month.

“People have to realise the real differential discount we can give as an ISP provider.  All of our 5,000 corporate and residential clients will be on the fibre by the end of September,” said Chris Senanu, managing director of the internet division at Access Kenya.

However, the company warned that it was not in a position to promise significant price cuts as it still had relatively high operational costs to maintain. 
Although, the operational costs are still high especially with energy costs, Mr Senanu promised clients up to 50 per cent in discounts.

The company has already starting offering select clients double the capacity at the same price to begin a weaning process that will see more customers buy more internet capacity.

AccessKenya has purchased a total of 2,500mb of capacity on the Seacom fibre optic cable together with a similar capacity on the TEAMs cable.

This gives the company a total of 5,000mb of capacity, a figure that is four times what the entire country already uses.
Recently, the company upgraded its network ten times in order to handle the arrival of the Seacom and Teams cables— investing 1000mb to 10000mb at a cost of Sh60 million.

Kenya currently uses just 1,200mb of satellite capacity.  

Access Kenya has also invested in an inland fibre optic network that it will leverage to supply the cheaper connectivity promised by international links.
The company’s cable is expected to serve 250 buildings and by the end of the September and already has 173 connected customers. 

Seventy more will be using the fibre optic by the end of August.

But for many of the clients outside the city centre and in rural areas the benefits will not be available soon as only three companies; apart from Access, Kenya Data Networks and Wananchi have laid the cables to serve their clients.

Meanwhile, AccessKenya has pledged to support the 39th edition of the Concours d’Elegance show in September for Sh3.5 million.

Home audience
For the first time, the audience at home can watch the competition live and vote for their favourite car or motorcycle via SMS.

Mr Senanu said his firm was keen to build an association with the country’s oldest and longest running car show to establish the AccessKenya brand as it celebrates the completion of the its local fibre optic cable that is 140 kilometres.