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Which network offers the cheapest data plans in Kenya? -techrunda

Who has the cheapest data
Which network has the cheapest data plans in Kenya? This is a question i have been asking myself for a while now, and i know many are also asking the same.
The telecommunications industry has been largely dominated by Safaricom, and despite various attempts by Telkom and Airtel to try and challenge it, all their effort seem not to trouble the tec giant, except one; affordable data plans.
In the past view months there has been a significant change in the data sector, Airtel and Telkom introducing outrageous data plans in an attempt to increase their membership base.
 In response, Safaricom have  on various occasions yielded to pressure and at some point there was a a raging war on who could provide the most affordable daily 1 Gb bundles.
When Airtel and Telkom decided to offer their members free Whatsapp, Safaricom revamped their data plans to make it more affordable and included free WhatsApp in some data plans.
In this article we are going to compare the various data prices offered by these telecommunications companies in Kenya so as to clearly determine who has the cheapest data plans, and possibility save you some few coins.
In order to be as objective as possible, it is only fair we first set some guidelines on how we are going to do this.
  1. Which networks are of importance? Since many are either using Safaricom, Airtel of Telkom data, we are only going to compare these three, sorry for faiba lovers.
  2. What about special offers like Safaricom Tunukiwa, Telkom night owl and the likes? For a fair analysis, i suggest we only compare the normal data plans. We shall also not consider extra offers like free WhatsApp or SMS, since the sole purpose of purchasing data is for internet browsing, and it doesn't make sense to argue that a given data plan is expensive because it comes with free goodies. Another reason why we will not  consider special offers is because in most cases, telcos consider such as a reward or a favour.
  3. To give a fair review, i intent to remain impartial as much as possible, so as to give you an opportunity to make an informed decision.
Data price comparison between Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom.
The table below shows the daily, weekly and monthly data plans for the three telcos:(price is in Ksh.)
Daily data bundles. 
Price   Safaricom    Airtel            Telkom
  • 5             7                     8                    -
  • 10           15                  40                  40
  • 20           50                  100                80
  • 50           150                400                500
  • 100         500               2Gb               2Gb
Weekly
Price.         Safaricom.   Airtel     Telkom
  • 50                100               200         200
  • 100.             350               500         500
  • 250              1Gb              2Gb         2 Gb
  • 500              3 Gb             6Gb          -
Monthly
Price (Ksh.)    Safaricom  Airtel   Telkom
  • 250           350                -                   1 Gb
  • 300            -                    1.5 GB          -
  • 500           2Gb                4 GB            3 Gb
  • 1000         5 Gb              10 GB.          7 Gb
  • 1500          -                    15 GB           -
  • 2000         15 GB            25 Gb           25 Gb
  • 3000         25 Gb            40 GB          40 Gb
90 day 
    Price.   Safaricom    Airtel     Telkom
  • 3000            12 GB         12Gb        -
  • 6000            50 GB         40 Gb       -
  • 9000            70 Gb          70 Gb       -
From the table, it's clear that on the daily data bundles, Airtel and Telkom give you more data for the same price as compared to Safaricom. However, Airtel being cheaper on one while Telkom on the other.
If you look at the weekly data, Airtel and Telkom have the same data amount with Safaricom being the most expensive.
On the monthly data bundles, Safaricom is still trailing, followed by Telkom. Airtel takes the lead in the monthly data plans.
Telkom don't have 90 day data bundles, and therefore in this category we only compare Safaricom and Airtel. This is the only category that Safaricom has a cheaper plan than the others.
Conclusion.
Since many subscribers use either the daily weekly or monthly data plans then we can say that Safaricom is the most expensive internet provider, with Telkom and Airtel having the same rank, since Telkom tops in the daily while Airtel leads the monthly.
I am also quite certain that Safaricom are fully aware of this, but they have a upper hand due to their countrywide 3 G connectivity, since it won't make sense to buy a cheaper data plan and end up getting frustrated trying to get a good signal.
Some people also feel that Telkom is the cheapest, but from the above table, we can clearly conclude that this is not true.


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