Safaricom - 2021 Sustainable Business Report

44 SAFARICOM SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT 2021 / STANDING TOGETHER: GOING BEYOND //// OUR MATERIAL TOPICS / OUR STAKEHOLDERS / KPI SUMMARY NETWORK AVAILABILITY AND STABILITY Network availability and stability are important because an unavailable or inaccessible network means that our customers are negatively impacted. The most significant challenge to network availability is energy availability and thus the network unavailability rate (NUR), remains unreliable power from the national grid, which is outside our sphere of control. What is within our control is the service unavailability rate (SUR) which decreased, despite the complex installations undertaken in FY21. The improved SUR is mainly attributable to improved network stability as a result of less failures in the network, specifically less transmission faults with regards to fibre and microwave radio links. This was due to the implementation of a robust transmission network, business continuity plans and back up alternative links. NETWORK AVAILABILITY AND STABILITY FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 Average weekly unavailable minutes: power network unavailability rate (NUR) 4.6 6.5 11.9 11.4 Average radio access network service unavailability rate (SUR) (minutes) 22.2 25.6 32.4 24.7 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND OUR NETWORK Our Customer Obsession journey means prioritising customer experience by ensuring we provide a robust and stable network. We use the network-related Net Promoter Score (NPS) to help us measure our customers’ experience on the different aspects of the network. The NPS measures the customer’s experience with the network, rather than actual network performance. As an independent survey of customer satisfaction, this metric helps us to monitor our customers’ experience of the ongoing improvements we make to the network. In FY21, to ensure continued network reliability, we upgraded the Internet gateways to high capacity routers and upgraded the firewall clusters from two to three chassis. Robust firewalls were also deployed. In addition, the Allot Deep Packet Inspector (DPI) was upgraded to 400G. To handle the added demand for IPs, we deployed Carrier Grade Network Address Translators (CGNAT) commissioned in QoA, Thika and Nakuru. In addition, we continuously deployed content CACHE, with a current deployment of Facebook, Google, Netflix and Akamai in QoA, Thika and Mombasa. All these complex initiatives were carried out with minimal disruptions to service. NETWORK COVERAGE (% OF THE POPULATION COVERED) 2G 2G 3G 3G 4G 4G FY18 96 89 35 FY19 96 92 56 FY20 96 94 77 FY21 96 95 94 BASE STATION TYPE FY18 4 599 4 949 4 907 2 791 5 314 5 275 4 342 5 526 5 500 5 387 FY19 FY20 FY21 4 364 1 665 “Our Customer Obsession journey means prioritising customer experience by ensuring we provide a robust and stable network.”