Clearly there is change happening at Telkom Kenya since it was acquired by Helios Investment Partners last year. There has been major changes in terms of how many people have hired at senior and middle management. These changes are starting to manifest themselves in the marketing of their offerings as well as how they are packaged. As I understand it, from reliable sources, the rebranding of Telkom Kenya and its offerings will really start take of in May 2017 which should be quite exciting!

One of the things thats really interesting about Telkom Kenya, thanks to their long legacy as the oldest telco in Kenya is that they have really impressive telecommunications infrastructure that is not only widespread nationwide but also diverse in terms of what they can do, and use. This is something that not many consumers and businesses may be aware of but Telkom Kenya actually leases out its telecommunications infrastructure to many of its competitors in the various segments in serves.

For the purposes of this blog post, I want to talk about the SME focussed E@synet Internet offering from Telkom Enterprise – the business services division of Telkom Kenya. E@synet is a fixed unlimited offering that can be delivered using Telkom Enterprise’s copper, radio or fiber infrastructure. This is impressive in that the majority of its competitors use one or a maximum of two of these last mile options. It also means that a business can be connected even if fiber or wireless is not available using good old fashioned copper – with the latest Internet technologies. I’d wager that this means that Telkom Enterprise’s Internet offerings including E@synet can be delivered nationwide and NOT just in the major cities and towns as a result of the diversity and spread of Internet connectivity options available for the SME customer.

The second thing I think that makes E@synet interesting for the average SME is that they have an unlimited Internet offering of 2Mbps that starts at only Kes. 3,499.00 per month. This is actually less expensive than many competing alternatives in the marketplace that typically start at around Kes. 10,000.00 per month and go up to much higher than that. This means that accessing the E@synet at the low-end of the market is a very viable alternative. E@synet is available in the following tiers as of this writing:

• E@synet Super Lite: 2Mbps @ Kes. 3,499.00 per month
• E@synet Lite: 5Mbps @ Kes. 5,800.00 per month
• Easynet Standard: 10Mbps @ Kes. 9,280.00 per month
• E@synet Pro: 15Mbps @ Kes. 13,920.00 per month

Looking at the different E@synet packages available from Telkom Enterprise, its plain to see that these are great value for money and especially if we are looking at dedicated bandwidth versus shared bandwidth? If this is indeed the case, this may very well be the best alternative for an SME in Kenya when it comes to business-grade Internet connectivity.

The third thing that makes Telkom Enterprise’s E@synet worth a second look is that they have implemented security measures as well as dedicated customer support and fast implementation turnaround times for E@synet. I am going to be taking them for a spin by next month to see how good it is from this perspective so I will keep you posted on how the end-to-end services looks and works. In a nutshell, it seems like its really time for SME’s in Kenya to give Telkom Enterprise’s E@synet a second look given that its affordable, versatile, and fast Internet connectivity that is available throughout Kenya.