Strategy. Rising demand for web content driving innovation in product offering

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A price war in the home internet segment could be in the offing, with internet service providers seeking to outdo each other to increase market share.

Competition in the market segment is, especially being pushed by demand for web content from video-on-demand sites such as America’s Netflix, Showmax and iFlix.

Last week, Jamii telecom through its Faiba Internet service announced a five-fold upgrade in Internet speeds for its packages. This came just five months after Wananchi Group’s Zuku declared itself as having the fastest Internet speeds in the country at 250 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Liquid Telecom, on the other hand, said it was exploring the possibility of increasing its bandwidth to keep up with increasing demand for Internet at home while Surf Kenya said it was exploring untapped markets within Nairobi.

With the entry of Safaricom through its home internet business and Internet Solution Kenya’s Surf Kenya, the competition has reached fever pitch, with the industry set to realign, leaving only the strongest and most innovative players.

“Our fiber-to-home solution has now passed more than 83,000 homes in more than 10 towns across the country, including Nairobi, Thika, Kikuyu, Rongai, Nakuru, Eldoret, Mombasa and Kisumu. In Nairobi, the service can be found in major estates along Mombasa Road, Langata Road and Waiyaki Way,” said Safaricom Director of Consumer Business Sylvia Mulinge.

Ms Mulinge said Safaricom targets to build its future on the ambitions of Kenyans to own smart homes, where the Internet of things interconnects appliances.

She said as part of the telco’s drive to net more subscribers, it would strive to link up more homes and partner with content providers to offer security and entertainment.

“We prefer to approach content provision from a partnership perspective as we believe this model provides the best value to our customers. Our customers can access content from partners, including ShowMax. Customers also have the option of other third-party providers whose content can be accessed through the service,” she said.

Zuku, for its part, is using increased Internet speeds to position itself as the preferred provider for video calls such as Skype as well as real-time gaming and watching movies off the Internet.

“The Home Advanced 250Mbps is designed to meet the evolving needs of customers for streaming short videos, movies, real-time gaming and live video chats,” said Zuku Fiber Group Chief Executive Thomas Hintze earlier this year.

Communications Authority latest market report indicates that there were 120,000 subscriptions for Internet speeds of more than 2Mbps in the first quarter of the year.

Only 35,000 subscriptions were captured for below 2Mbps.