Safaricom implements changes to data policy in Kenya
As part of a change to its data policy in Kenya, mobile service provider Safaricom has made it easier for users to load data bundles and use the bundles for a longer period. The service provider decided to implement the changes after customers raised concerns over the short expiry period and the fact that data does not carry over from month-to-month.
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore (image: Safaricom)
“Following an internal review and in an effort to continuously enhance customer experience, we have made some changes to the policy. In that regard, data bundles between seven days and 90 days validity are rolled over when a subscriber tops up before the expiry of the bundle,” Safaricom explained in a statement.
Safaricom also informed users that they will still be able to buy data bundles through direct scratch card top-up, visiting the Safaricom bundles webpage from a smarthphone or texting an additional number to buy data bundles.
“In addition, you can also send the bundle price to 544 to successfully purchase a bundle.” This comes after Kenyan users could only text 450 with the bundle price to top-up.
The company also decided to make the Safaricom bundle webpage zero-rated, meaning that users will be able to access the page even if they do not have bundles available – but will have to disconnect from other webpages first.
“The www.safaricom.com/bundles page is zero-rated, but before you can open the bundles top-up page, your session will be terminated because any one of the background connections attempted to browse to a billed URL.”
However, due to the fact that many smartphones have applications running in the background, users will need to have at least a small amount of data available.
“This therefore means that a subscriber will be required to have at least 10 Kenya cents before they can open the page. We appreciate that this is not an optimal function, and we are working on a solution to optimize access to the top up page, as well as overall customer experience.”
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
