Safaricom slashes SMS rates

MOBILE

Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom has slashed its SMS rates across all local networks to as low as Kshs 1 (one US cent). This comes amid stiff competition in Kenya’ s mobile arena.

Announcing the new tariffs, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said the reduced SMS rates are a permanent tariff proposition applicable to all PrePay and PostPay subscribers.

“ We are lowering the cost of sending text messages to any local network by giving our entire subscriber base an SMS rate of Kshs 1/- for Safaricom to Safaricom and Kshs 2/- for SMSes from Safaricom to other local networks,” said Collymore.

With the new SMS rates, Safaricom subscribers will save up to 71%, when sending Safaricom to Safaricom SMSes, and up to 60% when sending SMS’ s to other local networks.

“ The launch of this proposition takes into consideration our over 17 million subscribers, across the whole country, all having a variety of needs that must be addressed, and where possible, in uniformity,” Collymore said.

“ In this increasingly competitive environment, Safaricom must continue to ensure that our customers’ needs are the central point of all our actions,” he said.

Previously, subscribers were paying Kshs 3.50/- for SMSes sent within the Safaricom network and Kshs 5/- for SMSes sent to other local networks.