Making a call at 1 a.m., sending a random M-PESA to a friend, or dancing to the latest TikTok tune has become routine.

A slight delay in any of these services can be frustrating.

In 2013, customers of Sunstar Hotel, located along Thika Road, faced frustration due to a slow network, which impacted their daily operations.

“We were having a network challenge where, when a client comes around, they cannot make their calls comfortably. They have to get out of the restaurant or the rooms to find where the network is a bit stable.”

“Not only that, even M-Pesa transactions, you find that when a client pays, you don’t have a confirmation message to confirm that we have received the payment. So that challenge really was very, very stubborn, and we really had a hard time confirming the payments,” said James Mwirigi, Finance Manager, SunStar restaurant.

The situation worsened until 2016 when James reached out to Safaricom Customer Care for a solution.

“In 2016 I engaged Safaricom, and was linked to somebody by the name Agatha, and she helped me out. The Safaricom team then installed a rooftop network booster and since then, at least, it has stabilised. Now I can pick calls and transact on M-PESA,” he said.

To address challenges like those Mwirigi faced, Safaricom has different teams tasked with monitoring the network and keeping it alive and available.

To ensure the sites in the Nairobi Central Business District are connected, Safaricom Network engineer Kiptanui Kandie, based at Telposta Towers, is always on standby to resolve any network faults in the base stations around his region.

“So, on a day-to-day basis, I check on the network incidences affecting the Nairobi Central Business District region. Anything that is affecting service is given priority,” he said.

Immediately, any hitch occurs on the network. No matter what time it is, Kandie and other engineers in his cadre respond.

“So we are always on call, regardless of the time, we have our teams who facilitate us on security to make sure that we also secure, and at the same time, we make sure the service is available right on time,” he said.

Once they have resolved network hitches, the engineers proceed to perform preventive maintenance to ensure the equipment is functioning properly.

Whenever Kandie needs to visit a site, he receives a call from the Safaricom Care Centre in Westlands, where a team led by Lillian Kiambati monitors the network 24/7.

The Service Operation Centre (SOC) monitors all of Safaricom’s service offerings, which include voice, data, M-PESA, fibre-to-the-home, and enterprise services.

“We monitor all the activities that happen in those boosters. We don’t have somebody physically on site to monitor what goes on, so we have been empowered with tools that can detect all the activities in those boosters,” said Lillian.

The engineers at the SOC monitor the network on a minimum of four screens, which display the status of the entire network, the core system, the data system, the voice system, and the radio access systems.

No two days are the same at the SOC, but the engineers have a daily routine.

“A typical day starts with the handover shift in the morning, which starts at 6 am, or if it is the night shift, the handover is done at 6 pm where the handing over engineer will brief the incoming engineer on the incidences which happened during the day and any incident to be followed up, any escalations which have been done to level two and level three,” said Alex Muthengi, one of the engineers at the centre.

Monitoring a network demands your full attention, and the SOC team takes breaks to refresh and refuel.

“The shifts here are long, and we sit for a very long time. However, we have a breakout area with a TV where we can go and relax. In addition, we also have a massage chair, where you can go and relax, and we also have a PlayStation area,” says Alex.

At Safaricom’s headquarters on Waiyaki Way, Samuel Ochieng leads another team responsible for keeping the network safe from online attacks.

“Security operation centre is a location where we monitor cyber threats. So basically, in that centre, we see the threats that are happening within the organisation and externally,” said Samuel.

In the Security Operations Centre, they have a step-by-step process in place before dealing with a threat.

“A typical day I will look at the threat research reports. I’ll also look at our trend, our threat trend, and the events we are seeing. So, we collect events from devices within the network and also at the perimeter. Those that are hitting us and with what was caught by our defence mechanisms and the mitigations we do, and then we do look at the controls to improve and incidents to research on,” said Annette Wanjiru, Threat Analyst at Safaricom.

Annette notes that cybersecurity is at the heart of Safaricom’s delivery, as it ensures the network remains up and running.

Good network, M-PESA and fast Wi-Fi have become a basic need; all these engineers play a key role in giving customers the best network experience.