Safaricom has reversed its decision to scrap its loss-making post-paid tariff by May. Rather than phase out the more than 100,000 customer-strong service, Business Daily reports today that the company is said to be mulling over ways to make the Karibu post-paid tariff profitable.
The telco will instead either increase the cost of each bundle or decrease its size at the current rates. The final decision is expected to be announced in April and customers who wish to continue under the revised terms will be moved to the new tariff in May.
Currently, for Ksh1,000 Safaricom post-paid customers have been enjoying 900 minutes talk time for on-net calls, 100 minutes for off-net calls, 100 megabytes of data and 100 on-net SMSes while for Ksh2,500 per month subscribers get 2,200 minutes for on-net calls, 300 minutes off-net, 250 megabytes of data and 250 on-net text messages.
The push behind the decision is said to be motivated by fear that it could lose the customers to its rivals who offer similar services. Airtel has particularly been angling to fill in the gap that would have been left by Safaricom if it followed through on its decision to terminate its tariff as earlier announced.
Airtel’s post-paid Vuka plan offers a flat Ksh2.38 charge for on and off-net call rate, making it more economical than Safaricom’s Karibu post-pay’s Ksh1 call rate.
Statistics from the industry regulator, Communications Authority of Kenya shows that post-paid subscriptions have been growing in popularity across the networks.
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