Kenya's largest telecommunication firm, Safaricom announces call rates and messages hike

ruby orimba

October 17, 2018 5:51 PM

Effective from 17th midnight headline price for voice calls and data will increase.

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Kenyas telecommunication giant, Safaricom has annnouced it will be hiking its call rates and short message service (SMS).

Effective from 17th midnight headline price for voice calls and data will increase by 30 cents and SMS by 10 cents.

The company has attributed recent changes to taxes affecting their services that were passed through the Finance Act 2018. In particular the Excise Duty tax applicable on Voice, SMS and Data services that was increased from 10% to 15%. This is in addition to the prevailing Value Added Tax applicable to mobile services at the rate of 16%.

"Therefore, as a result of the increased taxes passed in the Finance Act 2018, we wish to notify our customers that from midnight tonight, the 18October 2018, our headline price for voice calls and data will increase by 30 cents and SMS by 10 cents," a press statement sent to newsrooms read.

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Also read: 3 reasons why Safaricom needs to worried about Telkom Kenya-Airtel merger

It is not only calls and SMS that will be affected however, Safaricom's home fibre internet is expected to similarly go up.

"Additionally, we have also reviewed our prices for mobile data bundles, Fibre-To-The-Building (FTTB) and Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) to effect the new 15% Excise Duty tax on internet services,"

Latest data from Communications Authority of Kenya shows Safaricom leds the pack and has a market share of 71.9 per cent in mobile subscriptions with Airtel coming in at second with a 14.9 per cent market share followed by Telkom Kenya has 8.4 per cent.

ruby orimba