Faiba 4G needs to rethink expiring bundles

Since 2017, Faiba 4G has the best bundle prices. Everyone else has re-priced their data bundles through the years, but no one has gotten to a point where they can confidently say they beat Faiba 4G’s offers. Not even Telkom’s Gbambe bundle. Which means, for a growing number of people, Faiba 4G remains the one network they can trust for data services.

I’ve written extensively about the Faiba 4G network, and the interest in these articles – from numerous calls to emails, texts etc. – is proof to me that the company now enjoys a significant number of dedicated customers.

When I lived in an area without Home Fibre, I relied on the network because their data bundles were the cheapest, and lasted me through the month. But even after getting Home Fibre, I still rely on the network for when I am outside the house. For KES. 1,000 I get 25GB, and that always works for me. It is cheaper than buying a daily bundle from Airtel or Safaricom.

The problem now is that Faiba is an LTE only network. Meaning to make calls, receive texts, one needs a special VoLTE supported device. And like I had already explained in this article, there are a lot of requirements to be met for phones to support Faiba VoLTE. Which means for very many people, even If your phone can access Faiba’s internet (like my Samsung NOTE 10+), unless you always check the Faiba App, you will NEVER get a notification that your data is about to expire. You’ll just realise bundles have run out. And when they run out, there’s nothing you can do but to buy new bundles. Because there’s no way to recover them.

Say you have 15GB remaining of the 25GB bundle? It will just expire and run out. You’ll need to buy a whole new bundle. Which can be very annoying if you rely on their internet for everything. It’s even sadder for people who buy the KES. 6,000 210GB bundle, and don’t get to use it all up within the month.

While the argument can be made that this is a way to ensure they keep their low prices for the bundles, it would make sense if the company made it such that unused resources could be carried over to the next month provided people renewed their subscription. So if I have my 25GB subscription that expires in three days but there’s data remaining, if I buy another 25GB and above subscription, I can get to keep the remaining data plus the new bundles. That would make so much sense.

And this can be implemented well within the app for everyone who doesn’t have Faiba VoLTE phones, and for everyone who’s using the Faiba 4G MiFi, such that within a week of expiry you get notifications from the app asking you to renew your subscription so as not to lose the unused data.

If you want a cheap phone that supports the Faiba network and can make calls, and receive texts, the company recently unveiled the Wonder Phone running KaiOS. With it, you will definitely get notifications that your bundles are almost expiring.

While of course, Faiba may not consider these suggestions, to keep customers in a growing market that’s increasingly competitive means listening to the requests of the customers, and making them feel comfortable. I will definitely be more inclined to pay for my 25GB monthly if I am assured that provided I renew my subscription, my unused resources will remain.