This archive report was first published on 24 August 2019.
Published on August 24, 2019, Safaricom's network performance was a subject of debate in 2019, following a series of outages that affected millions of customers.
The telco's Network Promoter Score (NPS) improved to 80 percent, a testament to its efforts to enhance customer experience. However, the score does not reflect the telco's network performance directly.
Despite the improvement, Safaricom's network was plagued by outages, including a six-hour blackout of its mobile money service, M-Pesa, on December 8, 2018. The outage had a significant impact on commercial activity, with many digital currency users unable to clear payments for ordered goods and services.
Safaricom revamped its network in the aftermath, increasing its capacity to handle M-Pesa transactions to 2,700 per second by March 31, 2019. However, the interruption scourge struck again in May, affecting M-Pesa, voice, and fixed-data services in parts of the country.
The outages reignited the debate on Safaricom's market dominance, with ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru ordering the telco's probing by the Communications Authority (CA) and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) in 2018.
Under current sanctions, the CA has the power to fine telco operators for poor services, with a minimum fine of Ksh.500,000 and a ceiling equivalent to 0.1 percent of gross annual turnover.
Safaricom has vowed to improve its network recovery in future interruptions, with former CEO Bob Collymore apologizing for the outages and promising to invest significantly in the telco's infrastructure.
