WHY NEW POA PUBLIC WIFI COULD REPLACE SAFARICOM BUNDLES

1st May 2019

Nairobi, Kenya: poa! Internet announced the completion of Kenya’s largest public Wi-Fi network with the deployment of more than 3,000 hotspots across Nairobi and Kiambu counties, and the launch of seamless home broadband and street Wi-Fi for its subscribers, in a technology first in East Africa.

The low-cost Internet Service Provider provides free public Wi-Fi to all of its broadband subscribers whenever they connect to any of the hotspots across its network of low-income and rural communities in and around Nairobi, being: Kibera, Jamhuri, Kawangware, Kangemi, Kabiria, Waithaka, Racecourse, Kinoo, Dagoretti, Kikuyu, Kiambu, Ting’ang’a, Kirigiti, Ndumberi and Githunguri.

A Kenyan mobile subscriber uses a smartphone. Images Courtesy of Val Lukhanyu

UKO POA Wi-Fi can also be used by non-broadband subscribers at prices far lower than traditional data bundles. For these pay-as-you-go users, the Wi-Fi network, at speeds of up to 2Mbps, offers unlimited volumes of data for just Sh10 an hour, or Sh50 a day.

It remains to be seen if the mobile network will also be involved in Data mining for the said hotspots where the network will be rolled out is home to millions of Kenyans whose private browsing data may be used unknowingly. The Government of Kenya recently rolled out the Huduma number a mass capture of Kenyans Private data to enable efficiency of service delivery to Kenyans. Experts however warn that all this developments may be happening without appropriate laws to aimed at regulating the Big Data Industry.