If you have been following my blog and social media content in the last year, it is clear by now that I am smitten with Kenya due to its ground-breaking ICT sector developments that are spear-headed by mobile technology.
I even have a Kenyan mobile number for good measure (•‿•).
In this post I shall highlight, yet again, why my love for Kenya is not without sound reason for a self-proclaimed South African-based Infopreneur who uses more than 20 gigs of data a month.
I am currently on holiday in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
On landing at the Jomo Kenyata International Airport (JKIA) several days ago, I needed to load my Safaricom SIM with data, so I headed to the airport booth of Kenya’s largest mobile operator where I was handed a brochure to browse through for available data packages and associated standard prices.
Figure 2: Safaricom Data Brochure – December 2012 (click to enlarge)
First thing that caught my attention in Figure 2 was how clear and simple the data bundles on offer are: no differential rates for pre-paid vs post-paid, nor for standard vs advanced bundles.
This made information in the brochure easy to use for making a quick decision. I would fall in the HEAVY USER Category normally.
However, most accommodation places in Nairobi – including the one I stay at – have complimentary Wi-Fi, and my stay in this beautiful cosmopolitan African city ends in the next few days.
So, I opted to buy a 10MB daily Internet bundle.
Naturally, I was curious to see if there has been any change in data costs between Kenya and South Africa since I published the first post on this subject in October 2011.
In order to compare apples with apples while keeping the exercise simple, I chose Vodacom again as a South African proxy.
The rationale for my choice in both Part 1 and Part 2 is that both mobile operators are leaders in their respective home bases by market share size, and Vodafone owns substantial stakes in both of them.
First, let’s level the ZAR/KSHS currency exchange playing field:
Figure 4: ZA Rand/Kenyan Shilling Exchange Rate – 31 Dec 2012
Note that Kenyan Shilling’s value was weaker (at ZAR1 = KSHS12,38) when I published Part 1 14 months ago.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Kenya’s smallest data bundle, the 5MB in Figure 2, costs 1 Kenyan Shilling per MB.
According to Vodacom’s official site, the smallest data bundle on offer in South Africa is 10MB and it costs R9, or ZAR0,90/MB.
Figure 5: Vodacom smallest data package – 31 December 2012
The trend in both countries – and probably many others – has been that smallest data bundles are the most expensive on a per MB basis.
However, comparison of the two countries, using ZAR as a base, indicates that 1 MB costs roughly 10 cents in Kenya (Figure 2) and 90 cents in South Africa (Figure 5).
Put differently, South Africa’s lowest data bundle is 9 folds more expensive than Kenya’s!
A look at cheaper data packages for both countries reveals a similar picture. Kenya’s 25GB data bundle (Figure 2) costs 11,499 Shillings (or 4.5 cents/MB in South African currency); while South Africas’s 20GB Standard bundle costs up to ZAR3,199 (or 16 cents/MB in South African currency).
Clearly, it is cheaper to buy the largest data bundle in both countries (for those who can afford it), but the cents/MB is still up to 3 times more expensive in South Africa!
The graph in Figure 7 visualizes the cost/MB disparities more clearly.
Data Bundle Cost Comparisons – South Africa vs Kenya | October 2011
In essence, those who cannot afford to buy large data bundles pay more per MB.
Even worse, South Africans buying small data bundles pay a SUPER PREMIUM compared to their fellow Kenyans.
QUOTABLE QUOTE
A quote from the Africa Business Magazine of August 2012, found in Kenya’s The Standard newspaper of Sunday the 30th of December 2012, explains why the ICT sector – which includes mobile technology – is important to Kenya’s economy and standing:
FIGURE 8: Quote from Africa Business Magazine – July 2012
As The Standard puts it, increased availability of mobile bandwidth to Kenya from undersea cables made the difference:
$1 MILLION QUESTION
South Africa has been among the front-runners on the continent in getting access to the undersea bandwidth cables.
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