Airtel Kenya has joined the ongoing battle for control of Kenya’s Internet market, opting for a cheaper offering in the segment where price war was sparked by America's Starlink and followed by Safaricom.
In its latest review, the country’s second-largest telco has more than halved the pricing for its monthly data packages while making additions to the service offerings, marking a departure from rival Safaricom’s approach to raise connectivity speeds.
Airtel customers will now access a 60 gigabytes (GB) monthly package for Sh1,500, supplemented with 900 talk-time minutes to any network, 3,000 minutes Airtel-to-Airtel as well as 5,000 SMS to any network, which replaces the 50GB monthly package that was charged at Sh3,000 previously.
In the new pricing model, Airtel has also introduced a 30GB monthly bundle enhanced with 400 talk-time minutes to any network, 3,000 minutes Airtel-to-Airtel and 2000 SMS to any network at Sh1,000.
The costing closely rivals that of Starlink which in June last year introduced a 50GB monthly data package for Sh1,300, but substantially differs from Safaricom’s offering where a 47GB package enriched with 2,500 talk-time minutes, 5,000 SMS and free WhatsApp, for instance, goes for Sh5,000.
Chiefly driven by the influx of commercial internet provision led by Starlink, the market disruption, which continues to turn up the heat on traditional internet service providers (ISPs) including the telcos, has handed consumers early dividends as firms strive to remain competitive.
Starlink, which launched operations in Kenya in July 2023, also offers unlimited fixed Internet with countrywide coverage at Sh6,500 per month, but the user is required to purchase the installation hardware kit for Sh49,900.
The multinational has also introduced a cheaper and portable version of its installation package priced at Sh27,000, in addition to unveiling a residential lite subscription for the fixed offering at a monthly rate of Sh4,000.
Last September, Safaricom avoided a price war with the Elon Musk-owned Starlink and instead raised its home fibre internet speeds by up to five times in efforts to protect revenues and guard its customer base.
The number of Kenyans using satellite internet has surged since Starlink’s entry into the country, with the firm controlling a 1.1 percent stake in the market as at the end of September 2024 up from 0.5 percent at the end of June the same year.
The American firm is betting on lowering internet costs including discounts on hardware acquisition as well as lease plans in a market segment dominated by Safaricom, Jamii Telecommunications Limited (JTL) and Zuku.
Safaricom had last year written to the industry regulator to require satellite internet providers to partner with local ISPs. Safaricom’s ultimate parent company Vodafone Group Plc is rolling out its own space-based data service in partnership with AST SpaceMobile.
