Safaricom to roll out 4G network in five towns
What you need to know:
- Nakuru, Elodret, Meru, Kisii, Kisumu and the surrounding areas will get full 4G coverage.
- Safaricom has been investing heavily on its 4G network as part of a Sh33 billion plan to expand its infrastructure.
Safaricom is Friday set to fully launch its 4G network in five key towns as the telcommunications company seeks to sign more users on its high-speed internet.
Nakuru, Elodret, Meru, Kisii, Kisumu and the surrounding areas will get full 4G coverage, Safaricom said in a statement, raising the number of counties with availability of high-speed Internet to 30.
Nairobi and Mombasa and the surrounding areas already have 4G coverage.
“What we want to do now is basically commercialise better that coverage,” said Safaricom’s head of consumer segment, Mr Charles Kare, at a media briefing on Thursday.
Safaricom has been investing heavily on its 4G network as part of a Sh33 billion plan to expand its infrastructure.
The goal is to construct at least 500 more 4G base stations, doubling the current number of base stations.
On Thursday Safaricom introduced two new data bundles targeting customers on its 4G network as it seeks to woo subscribers into heavier Internet use.
Customers using 4G-enabled handsets and SIM cards will now buy a weekly 200 MB data bundle at Sh99 while a monthly 5GB data bundle will cost Sh1,499.
These two data bundles categories did not previously exist. The comparable weekly 130 MB bundle costs Sh100 while a monthly 3GB bundle costs Sh1,000.
First-time 4G subscribers will also get free 4GB of data for the first two days of use. The company hopes the new offers will help push customers into swapping old SIM cards for newer 4G enabled SIM cards.
