Safaricom, the Kenyan number one mobile services provider is about to change their pricing yet again. This will highly affect the companies offering mobile services such as bulk SMS services.

The company brought these news to the attention of their customers as early to give them a one month adjustment period.

The communication was done through a private message and is yet to be released to the public. This could be because they don’t intend to increase their prices for all their services.

The second possibility is may be because they are yet to make their final decision on the exact amount they will be charging per short message.

There is still another possible reason as to why the news did not hit the headlines; they have more breaking news at the moment, the passing on of their CEO, Bob Collymore and hence, first things first!

All the above speculations do not disregard the fact that Safaricom has already notified their bulk SMS services customers of the increase. Following is a message that, one of the renowned bulk SMS companies in Kenya received from their service provider who is the direct Safaricom customer:

“We would like to bring to your attention that Safaricom has announced a market wide price change effective August 1st 2019. This is done in order to accommodate the increasing cost of SMS delivery brought by previous tax increases, amongst other factors.

Safaricom managed to absorb the increases in previous years, however it has become necessary to adjust the pricing so that the service remains sustainable and to ensure the uptime of the platform. ”

The above definitely means an increase in bulk SMS prices down to the end user. It will directly affect the big companies buying the services from Safaricom. These are companies who sell the same product to other companies here in Kenya.

At times, these second level customers also sell the product to another reseller who now reaches the end user.

Among the top Bulk SMS providers in Kenya is Oramobile a brand of the Kenya’s Web Solutions giant, Oracom Group. The company hinted that the changes are like double. Bundles that they could buy at Kshs. 0.36 are now going to retail at 0.68 meaning SMS prices may go back to Kshs. 1 or Kshs. 1.5 each.

Speaking to Mr. John Sisoh the team lead, he stressed that Oramobile will still offer competitive prices since Bulk SMS is a key component of factors that lead to a company being digitally fit.

The new prices are said to be relatively high, the end user might find themselves being charged double the price they have been paying for a single message (one count SMS).  The change is set to take effect on August 1, 2019, a month from now.

Safaricom is recognized for their reliable services and are the most embraced in Kenya. The fact that they have the highest number of subscribers in the country means that bulk SMS companies will have to hold on. Again, having the increase as an impact of the tax-man’s new rates means that even the other mobile networks are affected, leaving no alternative for the Bulk SMS user.