Fury as Safaricom scraps unlimited SMS

"Bob con me more must go bring mikol jose home.." Disgruntled subscriber

Kenyans were over the weekend shocked to learn that Safaricom has just replaced the unlimited daily SMS with 200 on-net text messages. Thousands who relied on the offer to chat endlessly with their friends took to social networks to express their anger.

Within hours of the move, several Facebook pages urging Kenyans to 'reject' the move were created. One page, '100,000 Likes Against Safaricom Removal of Unlimited Sms' had already garnered slightly below 8000 likes by the time of this writing. Among the first post was,

 Hit Lyk and share if u have received this dissapointing txt this mornin
 " You have received 200 Items On-net SMS,Expiry date:03-12-2012."

.. and sure enough people liked it, because for a page with only a few thousand likes, over 660 of them like it. The page has since turned into one that attacks the mobile giant's general services instead of only the unlimited SMS issue. Below are some of the comments on the page.

 Nlieka punch ikaingia after ten mins nlikua 00 kuwakol wananshow nmemek international kol n only abroad kols i mek is to ukambani,mayakos

ata sa hii wamenikata ashu then tell me my account balance is low ati i top up
 
Please lets be real, safaricom hardly steal any money or airtime. Any lost credit they always account for. So even in times when we get bitter lets not be unrealistic. - Mumo Tom

 if only there was a button for not liking ur comment mumo

 Haikosi mumo unawak safcom ndo maana unawatetea nkt

xafcom u r nat fare mnrecord 7biilion prof na bdo mnafanya maixha ytu ikue ngumu xi kal rate xai ni txt pliz wacheni kutuibia mchana
 
i got 200 items jana n they were done by noon!nkt
 
Bob con me more must go bring mikol jose home
 
really are you guys even crious atleast mke them 1000 per day
 
I love safaricom very much of all network provider .kama hauna pesa ya airtime wacha kusema unaibiwa . take ur brokenness elsewhere 
 
 ...yesterday i was trying to contact customer care i listened to that nauseating noise unsuccesfully for more that 25 minutes waiting for 'the next' available attendant! 
 
Unlimited sms cut off,credu wanakula ka shit,guyz lets go on strike ad already am in tha lead nshastrike juzi.yu mobile 
 
Sometimz they du make mi angry bt cn't hama 4ril cz the stolen bobs goes out thea 2help thos poor kenyans n that y they r alwaiz blessed safaricom love u tha beta option
 

safcom ina madingo wengi wa na say u bring zack back home na ngovo na ukituma ngovo ina fikia zack ikiwa bob coz wana charge za kusend na za kurecieve 

The move by Safaricom is coming at a bad time for many Kenyans, since we are approaching the festive season. People who send Christmas messages to their entire phonebook will now have to foot the bill after the 200th message. 

Another lot of people largely affected by the move are high school students currently on holiday. They are believed to be some of the greatest users of the unlimited package, having nothing to do the entire day, but chat with friends and forward messages they believe are funny. This lot will have to reconsider their activity, as many of them consume more than 200 messages in a matter of hours. 

© nwire