Safaricom to refund customers for dropped calls

Telecom operator Safaricom has announced plans to compensate its 25.1 million subscribers should their calls drop due to poor network.

Under the Safaricom Guarantee program, subscribers will receive an extra minute of talk time for free each time their connection is affected by service interruption.

According to Safaricom Chief Executive Bob Collymore , the operator has invested substantially on its network to improve the quality of service

“Over the last few years, we have invested an average Sh30Billion a year to build the best network for Kenya. However, we are aware there is a great deal of opportunity to enhance the experience on our network for our customers. The collection of products we are launching today aim to provide our customers with increased control over the services they use on our network,” Mr Collymore said.

Safaricom is the country’s largest mobile operator controlling 65 percent of the market. It has however suffered from service disruptions given the large numbers on the network that is usually congested.

Mr Collymore said the operator is also fixing its data services under the “My Data Manager” service, after numerous complaints from subscribers of unexplained expiry of their bundles.

“We’re giving customers the power to control bundles usage by offering them a choice to restrict browsing to the resources which they’ve allocated. We want to fix instances where data bundles run out and the network automatically switches you to a higher price airtime option when surfing the internet,” he added.

Aside from Safaricom Guarantee and My Data Manager, the communications company has also launched My Subscription which is a service that is meant to provide customers with the power to view and manage their subscriptions by adding more services or unsubscribing from active services.

Report by Beatrice Eghwa