Kenyans Spending 5,000,000 Hours Daily Of Continuous Viewing Using Safaricom Data

As millions of Kenyans continue to stay and work from the comfort of their homes due to Covid-19, millions seem to be finding solace online.

According to data from a giant telecommunications company, Safaricom, Kenyans are spending at least 5,000,000 hours of continuous viewing daily on data powered by the company.

Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Mr. Peter Ndegwa said that the combined data carried out daily on both mobile and home internet reached 2.34 Petabytes “translating to 5 million hours of continuous viewing.”

The majority of Kenya going online using data bundles from Safaricom are visiting Netflix, leading to an increase by traffic by 60 Gbps, enabling users to watch at least 20,000 movies at the same time.

The number of Kenyans visiting Facebook using data bundles from Safaricom peaked at 100 Gbps. At the same time, at least 100,000 Kenyans are using Facebook Live to talk to family and friends about Covid-19.

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“We have recorded double-digit growth in data volumes, demonstrating that more Kenyans are working, studying and connecting with loved ones from home,” said Mr. Ndegwa.

The number of text messages sent by Kenyans at the time as they continue to work from home rose by 70 percent to 350 Gbps because of the “affordable SMS offers by Safaricom.”

Most users prefer using Safaricom because of their strong internet that is fairly spread across the country as compared to competitors such as Airtel and Telkom Kenya. In terms of prices, Safaricom is slightly more expensive compared to competitors.

The government of Kenya urged Kenyans to work from their homes as much as they can to minimize traveling and crowding to cut down on the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.

The majority of Kenyans who are in their homes most of the time than ever before and are now using the internet more to interact across social media platforms.

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