Fibre, 4G or Prayer: Choosing Internet for Your Kenyan Office
"Can you hear me? Hello? I think you are frozen. No, you are frozen. Let me call you on WhatsApp." If this dialogue is a regular feature of your working day, you are not alone. Choosing business internet in Kenya can feel like choosing between fibre, mobile data and simply praying to the Wi-Fi gods. Let us make the decision a bit less mysterious.
Your main business internet options in Kenya
Most offices end up choosing from a handful of options. Availability depends heavily on your building and area, so always check what is actually on offer at your address.
Fibre: a physical cable to your building. Usually the most stable and fastest option where available
Fixed wireless: an antenna on the roof talking to a nearby tower. Useful where fibre has not arrived
4G or 5G home and office routers: a router using a mobile SIM. Quick to set up, but performance varies with signal and network load
Phone hotspots: the emergency option everybody uses and nobody should rely on
Fibre: the reliable workhorse
If fibre is available in your building, it is usually the best choice for a team. It tends to be more consistent, handles many users at once better and is less affected by how busy the neighbourhood network is.
The catch is installation. Sometimes the cable needs to come from the street, the landlord needs to approve it, and someone needs to drill through a wall while the caretaker watches suspiciously. Ask about installation costs, timelines and contract length before you sign anything.
4G and 5G: fast to start, variable to keep
Mobile routers are wonderful for small teams, new offices and places where fibre is a distant dream. You plug in, insert the SIM and you are online the same day.
But speeds can rise and fall depending on signal strength, how many people nearby are using the network and even the weather. Halima's team found their 4G router was brilliant at 7am and painfully slow by lunchtime, when the entire building was streaming football highlights.
If you go mobile, put the router near a window, ask about data caps and fair usage limits, and test the signal in your actual office before committing.
Questions to ask any internet provider
Sales people will happily quote speeds. Ask about the things that matter more:
Is the speed shared with other customers, and how much does it drop at busy times?
What happens when it goes down? How do I report it, and how fast do you respond?
Is support available in the evenings and weekends?
What is the contract length, and what does it cost to leave?
Is there a data cap or fair usage policy?
Then ask a neighbouring business which provider they use and how they find it. Ten minutes of honest gossip with the office next door is worth more than any brochure. If you use web based business systems, like the ones in our products, a stable connection matters even more.
Always have a backup connection
Every internet connection in the world goes down sometimes. Cables get cut during roadworks, towers have bad days and routers get unplugged by the cleaner so she can charge her phone. The real question is what happens to your business when it does.
A sensible setup for many offices is a main connection, such as fibre, plus a cheaper backup like a 4G router. Some routers can even switch over automatically when the main line fails. It costs a little extra each month, but compare that with an afternoon of nobody working.
Do not forget the Wi-Fi inside the office
Sometimes the internet is fine, but the Wi-Fi inside the office is terrible. One router hidden in a cupboard at the far end cannot reach the boardroom. Moving it to a central spot or adding access points can transform things without changing your provider at all.
Also, please change the Wi-Fi password from the one printed on the router, and give visitors a separate guest network. The colleague who knows the password does not need to be the most powerful person in the building.
Your next step: run a speed test at 9am, 1pm and 4pm on three different days and write down the results. You will quickly see whether your problem is the provider, the Wi-Fi or simply the football highlights.