Kenya’s biggest telco is done watching from the sidelines. Safaricom has moved decisively into the budget broadband space with internet plans starting at just KES 800, roughly $6 a month, a price point that puts it in direct competition with the neighbourhood and estate internet providers that have quietly built some of the most loyal customer bases in the country.
The announcement covers two products. The first is Fibre Lite, a home fibre offering available in selected affordable housing estates and lower-income neighbourhoods, priced from KES 800 ($6) to KES 2,000 ($15) monthly with speeds between 10 and 20 Mbps. The second is Wi-Fi Bamba, a service that throws out the traditional internet playbook entirely. Unlike standard home fibre products, Wi-Fi Bamba requires no installation, no router, and no monthly subscription. Customers within coverage zones can connect directly from their devices, choose a browsing package, and pay instantly through M-PESA. It is essentially mobile data logic applied to home internet, familiar, frictionless, and built for households watching every shilling.
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Wi-Fi Bamba is currently being piloted in densely populated areas of Nairobi and Kiambu, specifically Kawangware, Kangemi, and Kiambu Bus Park, with over 800 active users already on the service. Safaricom says a wider rollout across similar neighbourhoods depends on whether the pilot proves commercially viable. Given the uptake so far, that threshold looks within reach.
What makes this move significant is the market Safaricom is entering. While the company dominates mobile services with a 66.8% share of subscriptions, fixed broadband has been a different story. According to data from the Communications Authority, Safaricom held 34.9% of fixed internet subscriptions at the end of 2025, ahead of JTL’s 20.1%, Wananchi Group’s 11.1%, and Poa! Internet’s 10.7%. The gap between Safaricom’s mobile stranglehold and its fixed broadband position tells you everything about where the real competition has lived, in the estates, not the boardrooms.
The target market for these new products overlaps directly with the customer bases of Poa! Internet, Ahadi Wireless, Vilcom, and dozens of estate-based providers that have competed on affordability, flexible payments, and localised service. These are not small operations. Poa! Internet had 263,305 subscribers at the end of 2025, while Ahadi Wireless and Vilcom served 222,060 and 133,316 customers respectively. Their growth in underserved areas is precisely what caught Safaricom’s attention.
Safaricom has also sweetened its existing offer. The company doubled speeds across its entry-level packages in May without changing monthly prices, giving current subscribers more value and giving prospective customers fewer reasons to look elsewhere. It is the kind of quiet but aggressive move that signals a company playing a longer game.
The stakes here are high for the smaller players. Estate internet providers built their businesses on knowing their customers, staying flexible on payment, and keeping prices low. Safaricom is now playing on all three fronts, and it has the infrastructure, the M-PESA integration, and the brand recognition to scale fast if the pilot delivers. Kenya’s low-cost broadband market has never been this competitive, and for millions of households still deciding how they want to connect, the timing could not be more interesting.
