Safaricom has reinstated its popular 'No Expiry' data bundle rates after a week of public backlash over slashed allocations.

Starting October 22, customers noticed they were getting less than half the data for the same price. The Sh51 bundle dropped from 255MB to 102MB, Sh100 from 400MB to 200MB, and Sh250 from 1GB to 500MB - effectively doubling the cost per MB.

The changes were made without any announcement. Kenyans took to X, Reddit and TikTok to complain, with some threatening to switch to Airtel which offers cheaper rates. Politician Boniface Khalwale called out the telco over "obscene profits."

On October 23, Safaricom acknowledged "an issue affecting the awarding of data bundles" and said a fix was underway.

On Sunday and Monday, affected customers started receiving SMS notifications: "Dear customer, the issue with your non-expiry bundles is fixed and extra bundles added. We apologise for the inconvenience."

The telco told Business Daily it was a technical issue and that customers who bought bundles at reduced rates have been refunded the remaining data.

A spot check shows rates have now improved - Sh250 now gets 1.25GB of non-expiring data, higher than the original 1GB before the saga.

Mobile data is now Safaricom's biggest revenue driver, earning Sh44.4 billion in the six months to September, up 18.2%, overtaking voice revenue for the first time.