Is Mombasa the next hub for E-commerce in Kenya?

Global network testing and data analytics firm survey shows Mombasa has the best smartphone connectivity. While many firms in the country struggle to stabilize their online presence, Mombasa franchises are more aggressive in going beyond the bar. The survey indicates that people in the coastal city enjoy an average mobile upload internet speed of 32.12 Megabits per second (Mbps) followed by Nairobi at 21.79 Mbps.

According to global network testing and data analytics firm Ookla through its Speedtest tool, Mombasa is the place businesses and people experience the fastest internet on your smartphone in Kenya.

The Business Daily reported that, Kenya’s Mobile and Fixed Broadband Internet Speeds study report conducted in April, May and June and indicates that people in the coastal city enjoy an average mobile upload internet speed of 32.12 Megabits per second (Mbps) followed by Nairobi at 21.79 Mbps.

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Urban and per-urban residents of Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret respectively download content from the internet at speeds of 21.02 Mbps, 19.41Mbps and 13.72 Mbps.

Uploading speed.

Mombasa also leads in mobile upload speeds at 17.13Mbps, followed by Nairobi at 13.27 Mbps, Nakuru at 12.65 Mbps, Eldoret at 10.11 Mbps and Kisumu at 8.95 Mbps.

In terms of latency – the delay in the transfer of data – Mombasa tops at 35 milliseconds while Nairobi and Nakuru tie at 37ms. Eldoret follows at 41ms while Kisumu has the highest delay among major towns at 49ms.

Across the country, Speedtest ranks Safaricom the fastest mobile internet provider at 27.54Mbps, followed by Airtel at 17.48 Mbps, Faiba at 14.38 Mbps while Telkom, which has the most affordable mobile internet in Kenya, offers a speed of 8.17 Mbps.

“Faiba is followed by Telkom at 33 ms, Safaricom at 37ms and Airtel at 38 ms.”
For mobile internet users, the research found that the average download speed in Kenya was 22.37 Mbps while the upload speed was 13.27 Mbps with a latency of 37ms.

Home Faiba.

For home or fixed internet users, the average speed is 23.51 Mbps when downloading content, 20.16 Mbps when uploading, with a delay of 33ms signaling a better internet experience than mobile users.

“Faiba has the fastest fixed broadband provider among top providers with a speed score of 23.19 Mbps, followed by Safaricom at 11.51Mbps, Telkom at 9.03 Mbps, Unwired Communications Limited at 8.83Mbps and Internet Solutions at 7.75Mbps.”

In measuring the consistency of each fixed broadband provider’s performance, the survey found out that Faiba had the highest consistency score with 43.9 percent of results showing at least a 25Mbps minimum download speed and 3 Mbps minimum upload speed.

However, Unwired Communications had the lowest latency at 18ms, followed by Faiba at 25ms, Telkom at 34ms, Safaricom at 35ms and Internet Solutions at 49ms.

“Eldoret has the fastest average fixed broadband download speed in Kenya at 23.68 Mbps and an upload speed of 21.30 Mbps. Nairobi dropped three places from the fastest city for mean fixed broadband download speed during Quarter One,” the study indicates.

Eldoret is followed by Mombasa at 23.27 Mbps download speed, Nairobi at 20.71 Mbps, Kisumu at 18.07 Mbps and Nakuru at 13.27 Mbps.
While such speeds are optimal for a third world country, Kenya is still way below the Ookla’s global average download speed of 55.34 Mbps for mobile users and 106.61 Mbps for fixed internet consumers.

Businesses advantage.

The invention and popularization of the internet has introduced a massive wave of changes to business, and in the way the world does business. In fact, the internet made the global marketplace more accessible via immediate connections and lines of communication. In Mombasa, the business opportunities are far and wide considering the low rents, lower startup costs and now fast internet speeds. It is easier to set up internet based businesses in Mombasa now with these changes.

High-speed internet added several value points for businesses. The ability to publish and play music, and play video added a new element to online advertising. the new advertising platforms in peoples phones including on WhatsApp allows for personalisation of  content to meet the user experience.  This also increased the capabilities of a company website. Suddenly, a real estate agent had the bandwidth to load and deliver virtual tours; an artist could load large graphic files, and larger media files could transmit between users.

Mombasa, Kenya.

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