Here Are Safaricom Services That Will Be Unavailable For 11 Hours

Safaricom PLC has announced a planned maintenance scheduled upgrade to its services from Saturday, April 24, 2021, at 10 PM to Sunday morning at 9 AM.

In a statement, the telecommunications company stated that SIM swap, all airtime top-up, tariff migration, and activation of new lines would be unavailable during the period which would last for 11 hours.

Safaricom, however, indicated that all other services including M-PESA services, calls, data, and SMS would be available during the maintenance period.

“The timing of the maintenance activity has been planned to result in the least of inconvenience to our customers,” the statement released on Friday, April 23, read in part. The service provider further apologized to its customers in case of any inconvenience that might be caused.

According to the giant telco, they explained that upgrading its systems was meant to increase its capacity in line with customer growth and to support innovation to meet the different needs of its subscribers.

In recent times, Safaricom, which started in 1993, has introduced new features as it endeavors to improve services for millions of subscribers.

In March 2021, the service provider announced the launch of trials for the 5G technology for its customers. The trial began with both individual and enterprise customers in Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii, and Kakamega.

As part of its trial, the company plans to expand the number of such 5G sites to more than 150 across nine towns over the next 12 months.

The 5G technology can easily act as an alternative to Home Fibre and Fibre for Business services, targeting customers in places where Safaricom is yet to roll out its fiber network. Enterprise and Home Internet customers on the service will be provided with a 5G router.

The 5G service will be available on mobile phones beginning with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and P40 today, and from the end of April 2021 on the Nokia 8.3, Samsung Galaxy S21 series, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G.

It can support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometer compared to 4G which can only support up to 100,000 connected devices in a similar area.