There were much pomp and color as Orange Telkom rebranded to Telkom Kenya with many people seeing an awaken lion which had roared back to life after being in a slumber for a very long time.
The rebirth of Telkom Kenya was set to shift the telecommunication sector in the country which for long has been seen as being dominated by one player; Safaricom Limited, who thrives more on mobile money transfer, MPESA and mobile data offers.
When Telkom Kenya roared back to reclaim its glory, many analysts felt that if the telecommunicator wanted to survive, then data and social media was the best bet for it. There is no doubt that Telkom Kenya has the best facilities and infrastructure than any other player in the field and those facilities just need to be well utilized.
There are many reasons why most communication analysts think that Social Media and data is the best bet for Telkom Kenya. First, this is founded on the fact that upon its rebranding, Telkom Kenya announced the official rolling out of 4G network coverage to nine (9) Kenyan towns; Meru, Embu, Nyeri, Kisumu, Kakamega, Mombasa, Nairobi, Eldoret and Nakuru with the telecommunicator giving out to offers to its subscribers; 4G for free as well as free WhatsApp.
According to Telkom Kenya, in its announcement, for one to enjoy the two offers above, he/she needed to meet the following requirements:
- They must buy any of the Telkom’s mobile data bundles. The purchased bundle has to be active when the 4G for free is requested. This implies that at the time of requesting for a 4G for free data, the purchased bundle should be not have been expired.
- For one to enjoy the 4G for a free network, he/she must be within the range of the towns in which the network has been rolled out; Meru, Embu, Nyeri, Kisumu, Kakamega, Mombasa, Nairobi, Eldoret, and Nakuru. This does not affect the free WhatsApp.
- The phone must, of course, be a 4G compatible as well as band 20 and what is obvious is that one must have a 4G-enabled SIM card.
The mobile age has taken over Kenya. A wave of change in the technology sector is sweeping across the country and those not yet on board are just a significant number. Statistics indicate that 90 percent of the youth in Kenya (the youth are the majority) access the internet via their mobile phones. The good number of youth are often glued to their smartphones spending volumes of hours perusing through social media platforms. Most social media platforms that have made the young generation ‘captives’ are Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and SnapChat.
Telkom Kenya should take advantage of this and focus on this market niche; the youth and the data. The company stands a chance to revolutionize the sector if it fully embraced the needs and the demands of the millennials. There are some few things that Telkom Kenya should do if it wants to lure the Kenyan millennials who is now tech-savvy that any other time in history;
- The Kenyan millennial is impatient. He likes things done faster. He will not spend time on something that will waste a single of his time. To tap into this impatience and convert it into cash, Telkom Kenya should make its internet easy and efficient than other players.
- Telkom Kenya should focus on the change of attitude. There are most people out there who have a formed opinion about Telkom Kenya. How can the telecommunicator turn this around? First is the offering of dependable services. Two is through marketing of their services and raising awareness of their products and services to the existing customers and prospective customers too.
- Telkom Kenya should roll out its services all over Kenya and try to convince people why they are the best in town.