How Safaricom Home Fibre is transforming Internet experience in Kenya

COVID-19 has negatively impacted several sectors of the economy and telecommunication was not spared, at least going by Safaricom’s 2021 financial report where they registered a very tiny drop in profits compared to a year before. But it is not always negative. Safaricom itself experienced growth in Safaricom Home Fibre uptake during the pandemic where subscriptions rose from 165,810 subscribers by December 2019 to 243,623 subscriptions by December 2020. Before the pandemic, Safaricom Home Fibre was second in the country where it had 33.1 percent of the market share, but the pandemic helped it push to position 1 with a 35.6 percent of the market share. Actually, Safaricom recently shared data to the effect that its subscriptions have already surpassed 350,000 subscriptions.

So why are more and more Kenyans opting for Safaricom Home Fibre? There are two reasons, the first one being the widespread rollout of the fibre cables compared to the competition, where most people are likely living at apartments or estates that are serviced by Safaricom Home Fibre.

Secondly it is because of quality of service. Before COVID-19 and at the onset of the pandemic, many Safaricom Home Fibre subscribers were complaining of slow speeds and numerous downtimes, complains that forced Safaricom to heavily invest in the Fibre infrastructure in order to better the service. The service improvement catapulted Safaricom to position 1 in service provision as measured by Net Promoter Score (NPS). 

It’s obvious that COVID-19 has played a key role in the uptake of Safaricom Home Fibre, and the reason for this is due to the need by many to work from home. As you may recall, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa took over from Michael Joseph in April of 2020, just weeks after Kenya had recorded its first COVID-19 case and days after President Kenyatta had announced a raft of measures meant to control the spread of the virus; measures that included the need for businesses and workplaces to close shops and encourage people to work from home. Peter Ndegwa himself took over the role of CEO while working from home.

The push for work from home culture therefore forced many to look for reliable cost effective Internet solutions that would seamlessly enable them to connect with their work colleagues and submit their works and progress reports; and Safaricom Home Fibre has proven to be a reliable solution.

It’s not just work from home though that’s forcing people to opt for Safaricom Home Fibre, but online classes both for themselves and their kids, entertainment, and connection with family and friends too. With increased speed at reduced costs, many individuals and families have been able to:

  1. Attend online classes offered by reputable institutions including the Ivy League Universities, and the best part is that a number of the online courses are available for free via YouTube
  2. Attend online conferences anywhere in the world with industry leaders discussing subjects that are dear to their hearts, and importantly be able to use the online conferences and workshops to expand their social networks.
  3. Stream Full HD or even 4K videos endlessly, be they Netflix, Showmax or YouTube videos?
  4. Play high quality video games
  5. Have unlimited downloads – where the only restriction is the number of hours you have a day and the maximum speed of the Internet you are paying for.

Those abilities have been made possible by the Internet, but majority of Kenyans cannot freely enjoy those services and that’s because Internet is still largely out of reach either because they are not aware that Safaricom Home Fibre is already within their neighborhood, or they just have to use data bundles. 

By cost of Internet access, this website ranks Kenya at position 26 globally and provides $50.22 (roughly Shs 5,400) as the average amount spent by Kenyans every month to access Internet services. This is close to shs 1,000 above the global average that’s about $40.51. Right now however no Kenyan should spend more than the global average on Internet access, as Safaricom Home Fibre has the Shs 3,999 ($37.21) Silver Package with provides the user with the ability to experience fast web browsing, SD Movie and music streaming, HD TV programming, Multiple device streaming, superfast video and file downloads, and the capacity to connect a CCTV system to the Internet.

Safaricom Home Fibre is yet to reach every home, but the company is working towards ensuring that their fibre services are available across the country. To find out if you are living in an area that’s connected, visit the Safaricom Home Fibre website. and fill in details of where you reside. Alternatively, you can just dial *400# from your Safaricom line.

Once you have discovered that your location is covered by Safaricom Home Fibre, you can dial *400#, follow the appropriate prompts, then wait for someone from Safaricom to contact you within 24 hours. Safaricom will contact you via 0722 000 000 and not any other number.The other thing that you may want to check while browsing through the Safaricom Home Fibre Page are the Safaricom Home Fibre Plans; which you can access by scrolling down the coverage page until you find the link View Our Offering . From that page you’ll choose Home Fibre then get to see these offers:

I’d personally recommend the Silver package for a typical Kenyan home; and the reason being it is the cheapest option that has all the ticks ticked green, and also 20Mbps is a more than enough speed for the ordinary Internet at home needs.

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