1 in 4 Safaricom Users Distrust Billing – Survey Reveals Telecom Trust Gap

Kenya, January 05 2026 - A significant portion of Safaricom’s vast customer base has expressed mistrust in how the telecommunications giant bills for data and SMS services, a trend that underscores wider consumer frustrations at pricing transparency and fairness in Kenya’s telecom sector.

According to a regulatory survey commissioned by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), about 23 percent of Safaricom users doubt the accuracy of charges for mobile data and text messages, leaving many subscribers questioning whether they are getting value for money from the country’s dominant network provider.

The results, drawn from a Strategic Synergy Consultants Limited study covering more than 4,200 respondents, show that only roughly 77 percent of Safaricom customers believe they are charged correctly for data and SMS services.

While a majority still trust the billing, the relatively high proportion of sceptical users highlights cultures of suspicion and dissatisfaction in a market where telecom services are essential to daily life.

Comparisons With Other Providers

The survey revealed a stark contrast with rival networks. Smaller operators like Jamii Telecommunications and Airtel scored higher consumer confidence in billing accuracy.

Nearly 98.4 percent of Jamii users said they trust their data billing, and 88.6 percent trust SMS charges. Airtel’s figures were similarly strong, 98.3 percent for data and 86.2 percent for text, significantly outpacing Safaricom’s ratings.

Analysts say this discrepancy isn’t just a reflection of consumer perception but also of competitive pricing and transparent communications by smaller providers seeking to erode Safaricom’s dominant market share. Safaricom currently controls about 65 percent of Kenya’s mobile subscription market, dwarfing rivals Airtel at 30.7 percent and Telkom and Jamii at about one percent each.

Why Trust Is Faltering

Experts cite several factors driving mistrust among Safaricom subscribers: Price Sensitivity and Perceived High Costs: Telecom regulators’ statistics show Safaricom often charges among the highest rates for voice, SMS and data compared with peers. At one point, the average data cost per megabyte on Safaricom was shown to be higher than competitors like Airtel and Telkom, fuelling perceptions that users pay more for equivalent or inferior services.

Disappearing and Confusing Data Bundles: In 2025, Safaricom faced public uproar after slashing popular “no expiry” data bundle allocations without warning, effectively raising prices on bundles that users had come to rely on. The company later reinstated the original bundles, attributing the changes to a technical glitch, but many customers responded with renewed scepticism about pricing strategies.

SMS Performance Issues: Customers have also complained about transactional SMS delays, especially MPesa confirmation messages, which Safaricom has at times attributed to interference from third party messaging apps and spam filtering issues on Android devices. Though the company has offered technical explanations, many subscribers remain wary of unexplained billing events tied to SMS services.