Several months after Safaricom made a huge mistake by introducing cheap data plans that expire within hours, days and a month, data that could not be recovered after expiry, data with a useless night shift component, they restructured the data plans to allow for an extension of the expiry date for a period of up to 180 days, got rid of the night shift component, and introduced a new pricing scheme. Since then, many have been wondering whether Safaricom Internet Bundles are the cheapest cellular Internet offering in town or if Airtel Unliminet is still the best option.
To compare the new Safaricom Internet Bundles and the now established Airtel Unliminet, I have considered to compare, in a tabular format, what Safaricom Internet Bundles offer for every Airtel Unliminet plan, leaving out any extra data plans Safaricom may be offering that doesn’t have a price comparison with Airtel Unliminet.
AIRTEL UNLIMINET |
SAFARICOM INTERNET BUNDLES |
COMPARISON |
50 shillings will buy you 100 MB of data, 20 minutes talk time, and 100 SMS. The 50 unliminet plan will expire within 24 hours |
50 shillings will buy you 150 MB of data and also give you 150 SMS. This data plan will expire within 24 hours. Alternatively, you can use the 50 shillings to buy a 7 day data plan that will give you 65 MB data and nothing else. |
Although Safaricom has an extra 50 MBs and another extra 50 SMS on the daily offer, you will still have to spend another 60 shillings in order to access the 20 minutes talk time offered by the 50 Airtel Unliminet plan. If you want to have the 50 shillings last you one week on Safaricom, you will only get a meager 65 MBs. The advantage on Safaricom is that you can choose to have your 50 shillings serve you for a week.
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100 shillings will buy you 300 MB data, 60 minutes talk time and 500 SMS. The plan will expire within 24 hours. |
100 shillings will buy you 130 MBs of data and nothing else, except that the data will expire in seven days. |
This data plan option has only one advantage, to have your 100 shillings serve you for one week, nothing else.
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250 shillings will buy you 500 MB data, 100 minutes talk time and 500 SMS. The plan will expire in seven days. |
250 shillings will buy you 350 MB of data that will last for one month. |
You are more than twice better off spending your 250 shillings on Airtel Unliminet. Basically, 350 MBs would hardly last more than a few days for most people so the 30 days expiry on Safaricom doesnāt count that much.
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500 shillings will buy you 1.5 GB, 300 minutes talk time and 2,500 SMS. The plan will expire in seven days. |
500 shillings will buy you 1 GB of data that will last for one month. |
Again, you are more than twice better off spending your 500 shillings on Airtel Unliminet as 1.5 GB data will normally give most people a seven days service.
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1000 shillings will buy you 2 GB data, 400 minutes talk time, and 2000 SMS. The plan will expire in one month. |
1000 shillings will buy you 3 GB of data that will last for one month. |
Safaricom offers you an extra 1 GB of data for the same amount. Here the bargain is complicated. If you are a no-talk person, then the Shs 1,200 worth of talk time that comes with 1000 Airtel Unliminet plan might not be of interest to you. However, for people who want to balance between data and talk time, Airtel Unliminet still offers a package that is worth considering.
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2000 shillins will buy you 6 GB data, 1,200 minutes talk time and 10,000 SMS. The plan will expire in one month. |
2000 shillings will buy you 7.5 GB data that will last for one month. |
Again, the offer here depends on your priorities. The data centric people will find the 7.5 GB offer by Safaricom more palatable than the abundant talk time worth Shs 3,600 that comes with 2000 Airtel Unliminet plan.
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In all the above options, Airtel Unliminet allows you to continue accessing the Internet even after your data bundles have run out but at a slower speed of 256 Kpbs. |
There is no unlimited Internet access whatsoever in all Safaricom Internet Bundle options. |
Having used Airtel Unliminet for three months, I find the offer of unlimited Internet extremely useful. In practical usage, I find myself browsing normally (speed wise) even when the data bundles have expired. The only guys who could complain for the slower speeds are those who do heavy online gaming, those that stream high quality content, or those who download/upload heavy files. See There is something good you didnāt know about Airtel Unliminet |
VERDICT
Airtel Unliment is obviously superior but heavy data consumers might find Safaricomās monthly plans more suitable for their data needs. Personally I do not find any valuable reasons to shift from Unliminet to Safaricom given that Unliminet still allows me to access unlimited Internet at reasonable speeds even after my data has run out.