Opera stops free data offers in Kenya on regulatory changes
Norwegian web innovator Opera has stopped its free data campaigns in Kenya following a regulatory policy aimed at cracking down on advertisements displayed on speed dials, commonly known as bookmarks, within browsers.
The just-ended campaign, unveiled four years ago, has seen the multinational give Kenyan users up to 50 Megabytes (MB) of free data every day.
“We had to pause investment and free internet access in Kenya due to the decision of the local authorities to stop advertising on Speed Dials (Bookmarks) within browsers. We are hoping for a solution so that we can once again provide free data to you, our valued customers in Kenya,” said the browser in an update.
In August last year, the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) ordered certified betting firms to stop displaying advertisements on the speed dial internet feature of the Opera browser without regulatory authorisation.
A speed dial is a visual set of entries compiled from the list of a user’s most visited pages on a given browser. The speed dial entries appear as thumbnails that once clicked, link to the pages.
The BCLB order came on the heels of a petition by the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek), which had implored the licensing board to rein in internet browser providers who had continued to display betting ads against a set of guidelines issued earlier to protect minors.
Opera, which currently boasts of up to 13.5 million users in Kenya who are largely feature-phone users, says in 2023 alone, it provided over four million Gigabytes (GB) of data for free via the campaign, which was an equivalent of about Sh1.6 billion.
