Africa’s talking is the best bulk SMS service provider in Africa, particularly in Nigeria and Kenya. The pricing of SMSs is based on the number of SMS an individual or company buys, the more SMS you buy the cheaper the price.
There are three types of SMSs that you can buy from Africa’s talking: Two way SMS,Bulk SMS and Premium SMS.Two way SMS happens when you want a response from the recipient and it’s more expensive than other types of SMSs.
Two Way SMS Pricing
Sending to Safaricom, Airtel, Equitel and Telkom numbers require a deposit of Ksh10,000 and monthly maintenance of Ksh15,000. There are no set up costs. This applies only for Dedicated Short Code.
For Shared Short Code (Keyword) set up fee is Ksh5,000 and Ksh 2,000 monthly maintenance.
There is 16% VAT charged in both cases and it is included in the costs.
Bulk SMS pricing
Under bulk SMS,there is basic plan, Plus plan,Premum plan and Max plan.
Here is the summary of the costs per plan.
|
Basic
Plan KES 0 – 19,999 |
Plus
Plan KES 20,000 – 99,999 |
Premium
Plan KES 100,000 – 399,999 |
Max
Plan KES 400,000+ | |
| Safaricom | KES 0.8 | KES 0.7 | KES 0.6 | KES 0.4 |
| Airtel Kenya (Local Traffic) | KES 0.8 | KES 0.8 | KES 0.7 | KES 0.6 |
| Airtel Kenya (International Traffic)* | USD 0.056 | |||
| Other Kenyan Telcos | KES 0.8 | KES 0.8 | KES 0.7 | KES 0.6 |
| International Markets | View price list |
Sender ID
Sender ID set up cost for all Mobile Service Providers
| Telco | Set Up |
| Bundled Safaricom & Airtel | KES 14,100 |
| Safaricom only | KES 8,700 |
| Airtel only | KES 8,700 |
| Telkom | KES 4,500 |
| Equitel | KES 9,000 |
*Please Note:
- Airtel identifies traffic as international when your sender Id represents a brand that terminates messages to more than one country. That means that if you are sending messages from Kenya to an Airtel subscriber in any other country, then that message will be identified as international.
- Up to 160 characters are considered one message. Anything exceeding that will be counted as a new message.
- Also note that using special characters affects your character count and one SMS will be 70 characters instead of 160 characters.
Premium SMS
Premium SMS is the last one and is one that involves sending of millions of SMSs.
The pricing is as follows:
Revenue share
| < 100,000 SMS’s | 100,000 – 1,000,000 SMS’s | > 1,000,000 SMS’s | |
| Government of Kenya | 33.4% | 33.4% | 33.4% |
| Amount is regarded as 100% after the above deductions | |||
| Safaricom | 50% | 40% | 30% |
| Amount is regarded as 100% after the above deductions | |||
| Shortcode owner | 80% | 85% | 90% |
| Africa’s Talking | 20% | 15% | 10% |