Airtel mulls cheaper Internet in price war

Customers at an Airtel shop in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By PATRICK ALUSHULA
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Summary

• Airtel Kenya plans to slash the price of data bundles in reaction to a similar decision by Safaricom.
• The company said it will do “whatever is relevant” to satisfy Kenyan customers.
• Safaricom recently rolled out non-expiring data plans and also increased its data bundle sizes plan by more than 45 percent for those purchasing bundles of up to Sh20.

Airtel Kenya is mulling slashing the price of data bundles further in reaction to a similar decision by market leader Safaricom

, a move that would intensify price war in the telecommunication sector.

Airtel Africa Chief Executive Raghunath Mandava said in a recent conference call on half-year results ended September 2019 that his team is monitoring the move by Safaricom and will do “whatever is relevant” to satisfy Kenyan customers.

“This is one of these moves by a competition, and I’m sure, we will evaluate and do whatever is relevant to ensure that our customers continue to be happy with us and stay with us,” said Mr Mandava.

“In the last few quarters (and years), we’ve been growing quite aggressively in Kenya. I think we have the right pricing for our customers, we have built a strong trust.”

Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, all delivered double-digit growth across voice, data, and Airtel Money, making it crucial for Airtel group.

Safaricom recently rolled out non-expiring data plans and also increased its data bundle sizes plan by more than 45 percent for those purchasing bundles of up to Sh20.

Airtel’s pricing is relatively cheaper than Safaricom’s. For instance, while for Sh250 a customer gets two gigabytes (GB) of Airtel to use for seven days, the same amount gives a Safaricom user 1GB to use over the same period.

A customer on Airtel gets 6GB to use for seven days using Sh500 while that of Safaricom gets 3GB over the same period with the same amount.

Safaricom had also cut data prices by 42 percent in the year ended March 2019. This was disclosed by South Africa-based shareholder Vodacom in filings made public in July.

The effective price per megabyte marked the highest cut among Vodacom associates and subsidiaries that also had reductions.

Vodacom’s operations in DR Congo lowered data charges by 29.2 percent, followed by Lesotho (28.9 percent), South Africa (23.3 percent) and Tanzania (13.8 percent) in the review.