About a year or so ago, fiber optic technology finally reached the shores (literally) of Kenya, bringing with it the promise of more affordable and faster internet connection. Well... I'm still waiting. We are still waiting.
The major telecoms here are also offering wifi internet access and with so many competing corporations, rates have been pretty much cut-throat among them. Safaricom seems to be the most expensive of all - their bundles are measured by the MB and Ksh 2500 (around 24.15 euros) will buy you 1GB of data. Recently, they added another tariff where Ksh5000 will buy you 3GB. Still, it's pretty expensive.
Orange joined the fray by promoting a Ksh1000 bundle for one week's worth of unlimited internet, supposedly 3G+. Well, most days, I can't even get a proper connection! It's enough to make an internet-dependent girl like me weep...........
One bright note however, has been provided by the recent text and call tariff reduction of mobile service provider Zain (formerly Celtel). Calls are now Ksh3/minute and texts are now 1Ksh/text across all networks. After several days, Safaricom followed suit with seemingly competitive rates after there was a surge in Zain sim card sales.
Today, our housegirl came rushing to tell me not to accept, on any account, calls from an "unknown number" lest I join the 27 people already dead from accepting such calls when they got a shock. Huh?? What kind of shock?? When pressed for further information, the housegirl couldn't give me any more details except that she had just gotten this warning from a friend who called her and told her that it was supposedly in the news and that people have died. Huh?? How can one get a "shock" from a phone call??
I told her it was probably a nasty rumor being spread against the mobile carrier who was first to offer the "unknown caller" service. All part of the price wars. Rumor mongering indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment