The stage is set for Internet price wars following the launch today by Kenya Data Networks (KDN) of  the cheapest broadband solution in the market. In a move that could spell the death of Internet Service Providers (ISP), KDN unveiled Butterfly Optic Express (BOX), a solution that enables Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and businesses that operate in Small offices and home Offices (SoHos) enjoy high capacity, affordable and reliable Internet service to promote their growth.The launch comes hot on the heels of a market research recently conducted by KDN among SMEs and SoHos. According to the findings, SMEs wanted bandwidth that would be affordable to everybody. It is against this background that KDN decided to come up with an innovative and affordable product.According to KDN Chief Executive Kai Wulff, BOX is set to provide high broadband capacity that will enable the transfer of large files , the use of Voice over Internet services (VoIP) and greate access to web-based streaming and download of videos on demand, thus benefiting directly from the huge capacity made available locally through the KDN terrestrial fibre infrastructure.

“SMEs will now be able to save on their communication costs and still maintain high standards by the use of integrated communication solutions such as VoIP, email and data storage to increase their business reach and grow their market share. SMEs will be able to connect between one to twenty computers and employ more people while using minimal Internet costs”, said Kai.

There is no gainsaying that businesses will rush to snap this offer. BOX will be installed free of charge to SMEs and SoHos in all fibre buildings across the country.  Other benefits include provision of a free Izzytalk number (VoIP), free Butterfly email address and free email domain hosting. Through the signing of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), KDN will guarantee the business owner to providing 98 percent uptime to the SMEs and SoHos. The service will first be available in greater Nairobi, Naivasha, Mombasa, Eldoret, Garissa and Malindi. By the second quarter of this year, it will be available throughout the country.

“Though this product is meant for SMEs and SoHos, we wont be surprised if domestic consumers also go for it”, said Kai.

KDN has already connected over 400 buildings in Nairobi and across the country with the tefrfestrial fibre.

“The process has been simplified because SMEs will only have to confirm whether their building has a fibre connection from KDN and call KDN to be provided with BOX. Our resellers will visit the site immediately and carry out a survey after which BOX will be connected free of charge to their offices”, Kai added.

The unveiling of BOX puts KDN ahead of the pack as the only provider offering the cheapest bandwidth solution in the market. An SME that uses 1MB per month will now be able to download 324,000MBs in one month. This is equivalent to 324 Gigabytes of data in a month, for which SMEs and SoHos will be paying only 0.03 US cents per MB.

“It is important for ISPs to use the successful terrestrial fibre infrastructure as a guide for new offerings that will support the rapid growth of the SME and SoHo markets in the country and regionally”, said Kai.

The unveiling of BOX will no doubt be sweet music to the ears of the consumers who have been paying exorbitant rates for bandwidth despite the landing of the fibre optic cables. It will be interesting to see how other providers react to KDN’s launch of this innovative product. One thin g is certain, though. The ISPs could just be on their way out.