By Paul Wafula

Telkom Kenya’s unlimited Internet package has run into trouble, The Standard can reveal.

The company, which is one of Kenya’s biggest players in the data market, has been selling its unlimited Internet package for months. But it turns out that while customers assume they will get uninterrupted service, some are being cut off while online.

And the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) now says it would take the firm to court unless it comes clean on the reasons for the ‘deception’.

Cofek says Telkom Kenya, which runs the Orange network, is deceiving customers, by luring them with the promise of unlimited Internet, then failing to deliver that promise.

“We have received several complaints concerning Telkom Kenya’s deceptive marketing that hoodwinks customers, which is contrary to section 46 of the Constitution on consumer rights. We have put them on notice and we will be taking the company to court in the next seven days if it does not come clean and tell consumers the truth,” said Cofek Secretary, Stephen Mutoro.

An unlimited Internet offer allows subscribers using handsets or modems to access uncapped amounts of data for a specific period of time. Consumers expect an unlimited Internet to be a connection that is ‘uninterrupted’, ‘permanent’ or browsing without ‘restrictions.’

Mutoro argues that it is unfair for a consumer to spend Sh12, 000 buying a router, an Orange modem and paying the set-up fee for the unlimited internet package of Sh2, 990 monthly, only to realise they were duped.

Did not respond

Telkom Kenya did not respond to our inquiry as to why it was aggressively marketing its Internet package as unlimited, instead of telling consumers they were actually buying a 20GB bundle at Sh2, 999 to be used in 30 days.

“I am very disappointed by Orange and the fact that they advertise wrong information to their customers. What is more disturbing is the way I found out, since I reached my limit for monthly unlimited internet, which was supposed to take me until December 16. I am not able to pay for other unlimited services until December 16, which forced me to buy the fixed bundle per GB,” read one of the customer complaints Cofek plans to use in the suit.

On Tuesday, The Standard visited some Orange shops in Nairobi where they discovered that the Internet package is still on sale. A sales representative who sought anonymity at one of the shops stated the package is sold on assumption that the customer will not exhaust the bundle within the allotted period.

The representative, who works at its Teleposta Towers customer care shop located on Kenyatta Avenue said the offer is guided by a user policy, which customers have to sign.

Cut-off

“Customers are cut off while using the Sh2,999 unlimited offer once they exceed the 20GB limit. This is to guard against extra ordinary Internet users who would otherwise download volumes of data and movies day and night,” said the representative.

The company’s user policy is also ‘hidden’, given that it is not explicitly mentioned anywhere on its fliers, brochures, posters, or its website.

“Enjoy unlimited internet for seven days at Sh999... Unlimited does change with Orange,” Telkom Kenya says in one of its advertisement.

Telkom’s main rival Safaricom dropped the unlimited Internet data package in May. The move was unpopular with some subscribers.

Despite the complaints, Safaricom defended the decision on grounds only one per cent of heavy internet subscribers were using 70 per cent of the shared wireless resource, congesting and degrading services, while at the same time inconveniencing other users. Safaricom also cited service degradation and revenue loss.

At the global level, telecoms have tried to combat this service degradation by introducing fair use policies that set thresholds for the speed and amount of data that users can access on unlimited subscriptions. But this has created disquiet among users, sometimes leaving service providers who do not publicise their fair use policies vulnerable to legal action.

Data limits

While scrapping the service, Safaricom’s boss Bob Collymore also said the firm had amended its policies to provide data limits (commonly known as caps) and was putting in place a fair use policy, allowing it to limit the speeds if a user is seen to be exceeding the limits.

Safaricom was offering unlimited package at a cost of Sh200 per day, Sh500 for three days, Sh1,000 per week and Sh3,000 per month.

But with the exit of Safaricom, Orange stepped up its promotional activities of its ‘unlimited’ Internet package, in a grand marketing campaign.

Five months later, Telkom increased the prices of the unlimited Internet. While maintaining the unlimited nature of its weekly bundle on Internet Everywhere 3G+, Orange increased the prices of the seven days unlimited bundle from Sh990 to Sh1,200. The company has also increased price of its daily-unlimited bundle from Sh39 to Sh50. The price adjustments became effective from October 23, with unused data bundles expiring after 30 days.

But Telkom Kenya is not the only company that has gone out on a marketing spree, taking advantage of the weak consumer protection laws.

“We are also concerned that mobile phone companies are partnering with providers of premium rate short messages to churn out unsolicited messages breaching privacy,” Mr Mutoro said.