Telecommunications giant Safaricom recently removed expiry of data bundles, airtime for voice calls and text messages.
These latest developments have been viewed as the company's reaction to the growing competition from its rivals especially after Telkom and Airtel were allowed to merge.
Safaricom's Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Joseph, however, dismissed the claims citing that the changes were meant to improve the company's services.
“It has nothing to do with anybody except ourselves trying to relook at Safaricom and rethink our strategy. Whether Airtel is merged with Telkom makes no difference to us at all,” Michael Joseph stated as quoted by the Standard.
Data published by the Standard indicate that Airtel has been widening its customer base over the past month. The company grew its market share from 15 per cent to 25 per cent between June 2017 and June 2018.
Safaricom, however, experienced a negative progression from 72.6 per cent to 63.5 per cent.
The company which has managed to maintain dominance in the Kenyan telco industry has suffered a major blow in the performance of its voice services as customers are opting to make short calls.
A report from the Communications Authority (CA) revealed that on average, Safaricom subscribers spend 1.2 minutes of net call whereas subscribers of the rival networks spend 3.5 minutes.
The new changes by Safaricom are believed to have stemmed from customer complaints and a lawsuit that was filed against the company together with Airtel and Telkom over the expiry of data bundles.