Earlier in the year, the Communications Authority of Kenya granted Jamii Telecoms 700MHz frequency that could allow the company widely known for its Faiba brand to operate 4G. Jamii Telecoms would offer mobile phone services with prefix 0747. The company said that it was planning to launch trials and had invested Sh5.1 billion in its network infrastructure. Once the commercial trials were successful, Jamii planned to focus on offering data services.
The trials were seemingly a success as Jamii Telecoms is set to tomorrow (5th december 2017) launch its operations. This will make it the 5th mobile network operator in Kenya after Safaricom, Telkom Kenya, Airtel and Equitel. The new telco called Faiba Mobile will be the next frontier for Jamii Telecoms which has aggressively pursued broadband connectivity in the corporate, home and retail market segments in Kenya.
In July this year, local publication Business Daily also reported Jamii Telecom was looking to venture into the payments space. Jamii applied to register trademarks for payments and mobile money services including Faiba Money, Faiba Mobile and Faiba Pay. It at the same time sought to trademark the 4G Internet brand which it is launching. The payment services may be part of the value adds Faiba will offer to attract customers to its networks.
It will be interesting to see how Jamii Telecom positions and markets itself amidst increased competition in the data space. Market leader Safaricom has been keen to grow its mobile data offering, while pursuing the home market with Safaricom Home. Telkom Kenya on the other hand has positioned itself as a data focused telco, with subsidized data offerings targeting the youthful demographic. The venture of Jamii into the space will certainly intensify competition.
Data rates zipungue. Safaricom has refused to reduce their prices after Airtel introduced the 3gb 30day bundle for 500 bob, it appears they are banking on faster 4g to keep clients
Huyo Chepkwony kwani ana kakitu aje?
Safaricom will never reduce its prices…if you did business education in high school then you will know how the business of demand and supply works…since Safaricom has a high demand because of its better infrastructure and strong network probably it will increase its prices and at the end of the day you will run back to use it…Airtel and Telkom on the other hand have a lower demand and goods on lower demand are always cheap to attract more customers that why you can see the two Telcos have very cheap data rates…
actually, most Millenials only use Safaricom for Mpesa.
In my own clique, am the only one who still buys Safaricom data, na ni like 15mbs for 3 days, for my anti theft app and whatsapp when am away from Wifi
people need to use data-guzzling apps like Instagram, snapchat, Facebook, Youtube etc, using Safaricom on those is impossible unless unapewa credit allowance na job or kwenu you’re reach. Airtel and Telkom make sense for most people since they have low data offers. That’s why most own dual sim phones. I once spent the night at one of my girls’ crib and she streamed music the whole night from youtube using airtel internet, which Safaricom package can do that for a struggling campus student?
They will have to, with more people using apps like Instagram/Facebook/snapchat/youtube which are data hogs, they will have to revise their pricing models.
Hata Opera mini the data saver how many still use it?
People sending funny medias kwa whatsapp groups na wengine kusafisha mecho Telegram, unataka kuwa the only one left out juu data is expensive for you
Urmmm, was planning to boycott Safcom but if u r a heavy internet user and not heavy on voice…
The reality is it’s still the STRONGEST network. Telkom 4G is spotty at best, even deep inside Nbi and Airtel 3G is very slow…
They recently introduced a BOGOF for 4G bundles. If ur phone has 4G and u in a 4G zone, there’s now a bundle u buy under *544# and u get double the bundles. Can’t complain for now with that…