Last month, Airtel quietly rolled out a handy little update to the My Airtel app that brought the ability to onboard and manage Home Wi-Fi devices. We covered it at the time, but honestly, the feature felt a little bare-bones. Sure, you could add your router, see its name, check whether your account was active, and… well… that was about it. The “data balance” section was there, but mine politely insisted I had 0KB left. Which, obviously, wasn’t true.
Fast forward to this week, and surprise! The data balance section has finally come alive. I opened the device page and there it was showing my actual remaining data balance. Even better, the figure updates automatically, but if you’re impatient like me there’s a manual refresh button for instant gratification.
It’s such a simple but powerful addition. Now, I know exactly how much of my monthly allocation I’ve burned through and can plan my usage without crossing the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) threshold. No surprises. No random slowdowns because I accidentally binged half of Netflix’s catalogue in HD.
And this is where my other ISP, Safaricom, starts to look a little behind.
Like Airtel, Safaricom also lets you add and manage your 5G Home Wi-Fi router from its My Safaricom app. Unlike Airtel, though, there’s no way to check how much data you’ve used or how much you’ve got left. This is baffling, especially since all 5G plans have FUP limits. For example, my entry-level Safaricom 5G Home plan (10Mbps) comes with a 250GB monthly cap. Once I hit that limit, speeds get throttled. But there’s no in-app meter to warn me I’m getting close.
That means I’m left playing a dangerous guessing game. Will my connection slow to a crawl in the middle of a video call or during the final episode of a series? Who knows! I did share this little inconvenience with Safaricom’s support team on X (Twitter), and their response was the usual polite “we’ve noted your feedback” line. Translation: “Maybe one day, but don’t hold your breath.”
Still, I have a feeling they’ll eventually cave and add it. Why? Because once you’ve seen your live data balance update in real-time on Airtel’s app, you can’t unsee it. It’s the kind of quality-of-life feature that makes you feel like your ISP actually wants you to have a good experience.
For now, Airtel gets the crown for giving Home Wi-Fi users better visibility and control over their data. Safaricom, your move.
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