[kictanet] Safaricom Wimax service

Fri Oct 8 09:49:48 EAT 2010

Yawe,

I agree with you that Safaricom has not fully thought out the operational management of this product. I applied and promptly paid for the service as a redundant link at my office building on Friday last week and was promised that it would be installed by Monday this week. The engineers finally came on Tuesday but they had no official documentation or identification and were denied access to the building conduits and rooftop by the management until they had the right documentation. When they finally returned on Thursday with a letter; they were again sent away as the management of the building required them to have a “license” and pay to an annual rent to setup their equipment on the rooftop at a cost of KES. 120,000 – KES 180,000. 

I understand that this product is mainly targeted at residential users but since I was visited by Safaricom staff before making payment I expect that they had worked out the installation and configuration part. 

Regards,

Harry Karanja n Director n SoftLaw Limited n Genius Executive Centre n 15th Floor View Park Towers  n Utalii Lane n Nairobi CBD n Tel: +254 20 342 225 

From: kictanet-bounces+kairo=softlaw.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+kairo=softlaw.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of robert yawe
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 8:46 AM
To: kairo at softlaw.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] Safaricom Wimax service

Hi,

I was most exited about getting the Safaricom Wimax service, they had teething problems with the role out which I suspect was because they did not anticipate the level of demand.

The service finally worked, which took about a week from the time I applied for the service, but only for about 3 days then the problems started.

What is most annoying is that the customer service number is not toll free and cannot be reached through the normal 100 or 200 numbers which to me suggests that Safaricom has not fully integrated the new baby into the rest of the organisation.  The customer service number is also only manned during normal working hours which is unacceptable when you are dealing with residential users who need the service outside this hours.

The fixed wireless business is also very different from mobile wireless which is Safaricoms forte, with  fixed wireless the client cannot take the equipment  to a customer service centre which would therefore mean the need for more personnel, vehicles and higher chances of providing mediocre services.  This will be a good experience for Safaricom in dealing with a different type of client especially now that they are offering B2B solutions such as application hosting and collocation services.  I am sure that after this experience they will never talk ill of Telkom and their landline service.

When the initial team came to do the installation it was clear that they where not Safaricom employees but an outsourced provider who where not up to scratch on dealing with residential users.  They had dropped the antennae cable down the side of the house from the roof and then through the window.  

I had them remove the shoddy installation and make sure they passed the cable through the provided conduits which meant that a single team outing turned into a 3 day affair, at the fixed cost I am sure they are being paid per installation I am not surprised that they have not been able to come and fix my link which has been down since Monday this week.

Regards

Sent from my laptop in the office since my Safaricom Nyumbani service is inoperative

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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