I got a lot of hits with my previous post about which was the best ISP in Kenya and that post was written a year ago and most likely things have changed so consider this post an update.
1.SPEED
It is the first one because most of the times this is all you need to know.With the 3 undersea cables prices have dropped dramatically even though people don't want to accept it they have and they will continue to so if you are sitting at home with an internet connection you hate its you're fault.
Basically there are two speeds you should know,the upload speed and the download speed.Most of the time the upload speed is irrelevant but its good to know anyway especially if you are getting it for a home office or small business.The average lowest bandwidth you get is 256kbps.Now one thing I always get asked is 'My bandwidth is 256kbps yet my download speeds never go over 40KBps.You may not have noticed but the b in the bandwidth stands for bits not bytes.And 8 bits make 1 byte therefore to determine your average download speed divide your bandwidth by 8.
so for 256kbps you will get an average of 32KBps
for 512kbps you will get an average of 64KBps
for 1Mbps you will get an average of 125KBps
Yes I know I have just blown your mind but thats the reality of things.So now you can get a rough picture of the package you will be taking home.
2.PING
(The time it takes a message to be sent to a device on a network and a reply to be received)
Almost nobody cares about this and I am one of them but if you are a fan of online gaming(PS3,Xbox360,PC)(I have not put the wii beacuse it has the same graphics as my phone and I am a hater) this matters because the higher the ping the slower the gameplay online.But one workaround that is currently gaining speed is the establishment of local servers effectively reducing the ping.I don't know any but I know they are there,if you are running one you can give people directions in the comments section.
3.PRICE
Second most important consideration.For around 1000 ksh/month you can get a 256kbps connection on zuku which is enough for a basic internet user.I won't go into details with this as these prices change almost every month(hehe) so instaed I will give a link to each of the ISPs package details page
Zuku(Wananchi Offline,oh!I mean Online)
BOX(KDN)
Access@Home(AccessKenya)
Surf and Talk(Orange)
These are the main ones if you seek internet for your home
NB:If you live in an area where there are wireless hotspots and have come across loopnet you can use that for free,yes free.Its very fast but is ad sponsored
Comments
Zain internet is crap,don't even think fo it
Safaricom are thieves,everything,even if you have heard they have fast internet,it will cost you...Your life!!!hahaha!okay it won't but its expensive
Zuku is okay for the price and it gets reasonable uptime with few outages
BOX is lightning fast,but you have to pay a deposit 15000 ksh before you can start using it
If you have comments leave them in the comments section below....
