Safaricom or Faiba, Mobile Phone data, Quantity or Quality

 

In Kenya most if not all have heard of this brands Safaricom and Faiba, the latter is popular for all telocom services that is voice and data including financial i.e. payment solutions as well as light banking. Safaricom was first Incorporated in 1997 currently it is the largest mobile network company in terms of customer base a whopping 35.6 million users, this is approximately 64,5% of the Kenyan market. The company is also the largest in terms of regional network coverage as well as infrastructure one can access Safaricom services from virtually anywhere in Kenya.

Faiba on the other hand is a brand under JTL or Jami Telecom founded in the year 2000, not very well known but due to the almost close period of inception there is no issue in comparing its services to those of Safaricom, although JTL also offers voice and data  one cannot just insert a JTL simcard in any mobile phone and they are good to go there are currently over 200,000 users including this blogpost author. That aside the area of interest for now is data or internet access.

Frequency Spectrum

Safaricom; 900 MHz  and 1800 MHzfor 2G service on . 3G DC-HSPA+ service on 900 MHz & 2100 MHz

JTL or Faiba ; network uses B28 (700 MHz) . source: wikipedia.

Actual Usage

On running a speed-test courtesy of speedtest.net this was observed

Safaricom speed test

The data connectivity on Safaricom 4g is relatively fast not only on speed-test but also in actual media downloads.actual 5mbps speeds in real time downloads observed, you can also access both voice and text services. 4G/LTE coverage across Kenya is consistent 

Faiba speeds a fair to slow, but sometimes the network completely disappears and you have to restart your phone now and then, one major downside is while your phone is using the faiba simcard especially true for Samsung Phones no voce or text services are usable. 4G/LTE coverage mostly in town centers, none what so ever in the country side case scenario Bungoma Western Kenya

Cost of data 

                                     

Alternatives are available and you can be your own judge Faiba data bundles are more affordable as compared to Safaricom's offers, but then again you can browse the internet on your mobile phones virtually anywhere in Kenya on Safaricom.

Upcoming Developments

At the moment both Safaricom and Faiba are in a market with other service providers such as Airtel and Telekom, 5G is making inroads in to the Kenyan market, however access to 5G enabled phones is still meager, with online sources claiming that about only 200,000 5g enabled phones in Kenya. With mobile phone financing such as Mkopa, D-light and others, access to basic mobile phones that can be used to browse the internet has increased, this is observable in all towns across Kenya.

Now so more than ever, the average low income Kenyan can own a reasonably well featured mobile phone and be able to seek information online, connect with family, and carry out business, internet connectivity plays a major role in providing the infrastructure that all applications be it android or others utilize and have the consumer get utility. The cost of data is still reasonably expensive considering that the average annual income is about $5130 (source World Bank). Service providers Such as Faiba  Safaricom, Airtel Kenya and Telekom have come up with affordable packages such as daily data, weekly data and so on, but there is still room for improvement.

By far the largest service provide in terms of customer base and infrastructure Safaricom also has fixed data that is mainly accessible in Kenyan major cities such as Nairobi and Mombasa, this also provides an opportunity for mediums such as wireless internet. With minimum monthly subscription of  $23 for 5mps connection this is still out of reach for the average Kenyan.