Telecommunications firm Safaricom has cut data amounts in some bundles by nearly half, raising costs for the same data volume. Customers began noticing these changes late last week. A company official attributed the adjustments to a new dynamic pricing system.
Safaricom customers have started complaining about changes to data bundle pricing since late last week. Previously, a customer received 255MB for Sh51, but now that amount has been reduced to 102MB, a cut of more than 50 percent. Similarly, Sh100 now buys 200MB, and 500MB costs Sh250.
A Safaricom official told Taifa Leo that these changes stem from a dynamic pricing model based on customer usage, though official rate structures remain unchanged. The company provided no official comment after email queries went unanswered.
On Sunday, Safaricom acknowledged a data purchase issue while responding to a customer who received only 600MB for Sh300. “We are aware of the issue affecting data purchase and resolution is ongoing. We apologize for the inconvenience,” the company stated on its X page.
However, other bundles like ‘All-In-One’ and one-hour options remained unchanged as of Wednesday. This dynamic pricing system, influenced by artificial intelligence, is used by many global telecom firms, differing from the old uniform per-MB or per-minute rates.
Data services form a major revenue pillar for Safaricom alongside M-Pesa, with the company shifting focus here amid declining voice and SMS usage. In its half-year 2026 financial results, mobile data revenue rose 18.2 percent to Sh44.4 billion by September.