And I’ve had enough of it. As previously mentioned on this site, TelkomADSL put their entry level prices up by 67%. Despite of my impotent fury over the matter - and perhaps because I must be certifiably insane - we forked out the extra shillings and this month paid KSh9188 for same service we used to have.
The service has been shockingly bad. Despite the fact that a large number of users in Kisumu, including probably the most popular internet café in town, stopped using the service due to instability and the price hike, the service has actually managed to get worse.
Continue reading ‘TelkomADSL is a Joke’
Having slashed ADSL costs significantly in February 2006, Telkom Kenya has hiked their entry level ADSL pricing by 64% after only 5 months.
The service in question is the 32/128kbps pre-paid unlimited ADSL bundle. This was revolutionary when it came out and uptake was good. New users parted with the KSh3800 ($51) connection fee, the KSh8500 ($115) modem fee and then committed themselves to a KSh5604 ($76) monthly fee with a belief that, as per ADSL pricing across the rest of the known world, the price would either remain constant and the speeds increase, or the prices would come down over the course of the next 12 months or so. The really nice bit was the fact that access was via scratch cards that could be purchased as needed (no monthly bills). Though a bit fiddly for the first time user to set up each month, it provided flexibility to the consumer. It also gave users a neat way to sidestep Telkom’s notoriously erratic billing.
Continue reading ‘ADSL prices soar in Kenya’
High speed internet is prohibitively expensive. I’ve been looking in to it and the only ADSL available to the general public is Telkom Kenya ADSL. Their prices, as you can see from the link, are jaw dropping.
The price of a 512kbps connection is GBP208.00 per month. A similar service in the UK costs about GBP25.00 per month (I’ve used zen internet as a comparison as they have no data cap and no 12 month contract, just as Telkom offer. Otherwise, I could find even cheaper examples).
The digital divide can only accelerate if this is the price of high speed data connection in the “developing” world! Its encouraging to note the costs are falling though!
I think Hannah and I will be investigating ISDN connections. They’re expensive (but not extortionate) but may not be available locally!
