From his experience, George Njuguna has joined a growing number of people across the world who view access to the internet in a new and different way.
“It seems like data has become a need, and it’s a human right,” said George, the Chief Technology and Information Officer at Safaricom, as he reflected on the record-high data traffic on July 14, the day of the Euros final.
In this digital age, said George, people consider data as a basic need, like water.
We have certainly come a long way.
Before 2000, the year Safaricom was established as an entity on its own and stopped being a department of the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, access to the internet was a slow and expensive affair in Kenya.
While the internet has existed since 1983, it was only introduced in Kenya in October 1994 via the Africa Regional Centre for Computing.
After 1995, numerous commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs), led by FormNet and Africa Online, entered the market. These ISPs offered access to the internet via dial-up, using telephone lines and modems to connect users to providers.
To connect internationally, users needed a satellite connection, which was not only expensive but also slow.
Until 2005, only ISPs could offer internet services in the country.
The situation changed after the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), now known as the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), issued a new licensing framework in late 2004 after Telkom Kenya’s monopoly ended in June 2004.
One of the major changes that came with the CCK was that providers could build their own ground stations, formally known as Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), to offer internet access.
This now paved the way for mobile telecommunications companies to offer mobile internet services in the form of GPRS and EDGE connections. Safaricom launched mobile internet (Edge) in 2004, which gave access to the web for Kenyans at 384 kilobytes per second (384Kbps).
The speed available would increase to 7.2 megabytes per second (7.2Mbps) with the launch of the 3G network in 2008, with upgrades to 21Mbps and then 42Mbps following in 2010.
One of the most significant moments in the history of the internet in Kenya happened in 2009 when the East African Marine Systems (TEAMS), a 5,500-kilometer subsea cable, landed in Nyali, Mombasa County.
The fibre optic cable would connect Kenya to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and onwards to data centres in Europe and other parts of the world.
Landing fibre optic in Kenya reduced the round trip for connecting to the internet – basically sending out a signal from Kenya to a data centre outside via satellite – from 700 milliseconds (0.7 seconds) to 100 milliseconds.
As the fibre optic cable was rolled out inland, it enabled another phase in the evolution of internet access. By linking Base Transmission Stations (BTS), popularly known as masts or boosters, with fibre optic cables, Safaricom could offer faster internet access to its customers.
In 2014, Safaricom became the first 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network to provide broadband internet connectivity on mobile devices, followed by 4G+ in 2015.
4G made it possible for customers to download and upload files faster, as well as enjoy buffer-free streaming of audio and video.
LTE Advanced also enabled ‘Carrier Aggregation’, which allowed customers to benefit from increased bandwidth accessible through the aggregation of different LTE spectrum bands.
With 4G+, customers could get peak download speeds of 150Mbps, which is double the speed you would get on 4G due to the higher data capacity.
In 2018, Safaricom launched voice and video calls over its 4G network, popularly known as Voice over LTE (VoLTE). This service offered crystal-clear calls with High-Definition voice quality.
With VoLTE, users also enjoyed the ability to simultaneously make calls and browse at 4G speeds.
According to Jane Museng’ya, Senior Manager of Radio Network Optimisation, one of the major initiatives that marked Safaricom’s transition in this evolution happened as Kenya grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was named the 4G everywhere acceleration programme, and its target was to roll out 4G coverage countrywide. Part of that work involved taking the fibre optic cable all the way to Lodwar in Turkana County.
“This (4G everywhere acceleration programme) improved the proportion of the population covered by our 4G network from less than 40 per cent to 94 per cent in a very short period,” said Jane.
In 2022, Safaricom scaled up again when it became the first service provider in Kenya to launch 5G, which offered customers speeds of up to 700Mbps.
According to Jane, the 5G rollout took a phased approach, with an initial focus on urban centres, industrial hubs and other areas of high demand. This has led to robust coverage, where it matters most.
As of June 2024, the company had rolled out 1,089 5G sites in all 47 counties in Kenya.
The integration of 5G has played a pivotal role in enhancing the company’s network capabilities as it supports real-time data processing at the network edge, which is crucial for applications like the Internet of Things (IoT).
The company’s strategy is driven by three factors: devices, 5G Wi-Fi and 4G data traffic.
“For 5G devices, we target areas with a high number of 5G mobile devices, and we have currently covered 60 per cent of the 5G devices,” said Jane.
5G Wi-Fi allows users to enjoy speeds comparable to a Home Internet on Fibre connection, while 4G data traffic is an indicator of areas with a high number of users with high data usage and would help to offload these customers from 4G to 5G, Jane explained.
There are currently 740,000 5G devices on Safaricom’s network using up to 80 terabytes of data daily, accounting for two per cent of total data traffic.
Rolling out 5G is not without challenges.
For instance, upgrading legacy equipment to be 5G-ready requires a high capital investment. The increased complexity of 5G networks means they consume more energy, while the low number of devices supporting 5G would mean returns are slow.
Still, the company has ambitious plans to expand 5G coverage nationwide.
Related: Safaricom 5G for Business
“Our goal is to have 1,700 active 5G sites by the end of the financial year in March 2025 with use cases such as upcoming innovations in telemedicine, smart ports, and smart manufacturing,” Jane said.
