I am not a Zuku customer. I have been before, though. That was way back in 2019. I didn’t particularly enjoy their services. Which led me to terminate my reliance on them, and even move houses to a place with a different Fibre provider.
That’s not a good thing to say especially in a country where fixed internet services haven’t particularly taken shape. That means one less recommendation for potential customers, which I feel gives more power to a potentially dominant player. Which is why I am writing this. A formal public complaint to the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA).
In the past week there have been numerous tweets by Zuku customers complaining about services. Not once has there been an official statement from the company. If there has been, we haven’t seen it, point it our way.
A year ago in January of 2022, I wrote an article titled, Home internet providers must compensate for any downtimes experienced, arguing out the need for a more robust set of guidelines that need to be met by ALL Internet service providers. In the article I asked the CA to do the following:
- Have providers rate their services themselves giving customers potential downtimes as percentages.
- Provide customers with information about upcoming maintenances to avoid any inconveniences.
- Provide customers with proper compensation for any downtimes that surpass the percentages given in agreement.
- During any unexpected downtimes, provide information on the cause, the expected timelines and any backup options during that period.
- Have easily reachable customer care services.
- Provide proper breakdown at the end of each billing cycle on uptimes and downtimes and potential compensation in terms of extra hours, cash refunds etc.
I don’t think any of these have been incorporated by the Authority. And this is a request for a reconsideration of the same.
Fast reliable internet access is a necessity, not a luxury. In Kenya we are actually paying quite expensively for the fixed fibre to home (FFTH) services, in terms of speeds in comparison to other countries. This is despite us having what can be argued to be enough capacity for faster speeds at cheaper prices.
We shouldn’t then have to experience poor services. We shouldn’t also have to be limited in choice and access.
So, not only should the Communication Authority properly deal with Zuku, or enforce the strict standards I’ve set out above, they should also find ways to open up the market for more competition.
