Continuous connectivity in this day and age is a superior factor in a consumer’s needs; and with service providers constantly advertising more new and exciting offers, customers are more inclined to services that offer them better. Because the only alternative in the market is to be better.
When it comes to mobile service providers, especially in Kenya; there is always an ongoing battle to give the costumers more – more data plans, more text messages and more minutes – all which come with the constant of being sustainable to the customer. Let’s take a look at the different options we have, their prices and other benefits that the three major mobile service providers: Safaricom, Airtel and Orange provide.
Airtel UnlimiNet
I’m sure most of you have heard of the Airtel UnlimiNet bundles once, twice or thrice now. For as low as Kshs 20, consumers get 8 minutes worth of talk time across all networks, 20 SMSs and 20 MB. Kshs 50 gets you 20 minutes and 100 SMSs to all networks and 100 MB, while Kshs 100 gets you 60 minutes and 500 SMSs across all networks and 300 MB.
Here’s where the ‘UnlimiNet’ part comes in; even after exhausting your daily plan (of Kshs 20, 50 and 100), you still have unlimited internet and free WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail, Twitter & Facebook.
But what I find pretty neat from the UnlimiNet plan is the fact that even when you don’t have access to Wi-Fi around you, there’s the ability to turn on the hotspot on your phone, use the same bundles as you would while surfing on your phone and finish up that proposal/presentation without having to search for a cyber/coffee lounge in town to do so.
Having used Airtel’s unlimiNet for better part of the year, I find the plan extremely useful; especially when it comes to the fact that I’m online for most of my day and I can browse even when my data bundles are over.
Safaricom
A few months ago, Safaricom introduced the ‘Stori Ibambe’ plan where customers would get free talk time from every Kshs 50 they spent. This 50 shillings also came with 150 SMS and 150 MB of data. This data plan would however expire in 24 hours and for people who are always glued to their phones surfing all day, this plan wouldn’t be suitable for them because from experience, the 150 MB wouldn’t last a whole 24 hours.
This plan was also revamped to a Kshs 108 Storo Bonus plan where you have to spend more than the previous Kshs 50 to get the free talk time. If you talk more, this would mean spending more than Kshs 500 a week to keep talking more; this was a real bummer to those of us who were already used to the free talk time which came with the Kshs 50 purchase.
Orange
I personally officially immersed myself into using Orange when there was this craze of students writing articles and sending them out for pay. This basically was someone you met over the internet sending you a topic(s) to write on for a specific number of words and you’d earn from these articles. This required spending a lot of time doing research and this was my official initiation to Orange, because of its affordable internet. Everything about Orange at the moment excited young writers, from the affordable price of the modem to its sufficient internet bundles and though it’s not as popular as it first was (according to my friends who still use the service), Orange Internet is still a preferred option when it comes to long hours on the internet.
We compare what the networks offer in almost the same price range.
Looking at the calls, sms’s and internet bundles for almost the same amount of money it is clear that you get more from Airtel Unliminet. It is great value for money especially because you get to use social media and gmail even when your data bundle is over. Maybe its time you got yourself an unliminet package.
