Airtel Kenya Joins the Home Fiber Race with Xstream

Airtel Kenya has entered the home fiber internet market, rolling out what it calls Xstream Fiber service with four pricing tiers and coverage already being deployed in select parts of the country.

The move ends years of the telco sitting on the sidelines while rivals carved up Kenya’s fixed broadband market.

The offering covers both fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) connections, with plans starting at KES 1,999. Routers are provided at no upfront cost, with the first monthly payment triggering installation and activation.

Plan	Speed	Monthly Cost
Starter	Up to 15 Mbps	KES 1,999
Basic	Up to 30 Mbps	KES 2,999
Standard	Up to 60 Mbps	KES 3,999
Premium	Up to 100 Mbps	KES 4,999

On the hardware side, a company spokesperson confirmed that Airtel Kenya has partnered with Huawei and ZTE to supply routers for the Xstream Fiber network.

Both manufacturers are well-established in Kenya’s telecoms infrastructure, with Huawei particularly prominent across multiple operators’ network buildouts in the country.

The rollout has been quiet by design. Airtel has been building its fixed broadband presence ahead of broader commercial visibility, with limited outward marketing and a gradual deployment approach. That changes as the service scales.

The groundwork was laid in September 2025 during the groundbreaking ceremony for Airtel’s $150 million, 44 MW data center at Tatu City. Managing Director Ashish Malhotra described the fiber rollout as a “work in progress” and promised an official launch. 

Airtel’s entry places it in direct competition with Safaricom, Zuku, and Jamii Telecommunications Limited (JTL), the latter of which operates Faiba.

Safaricom has leaned on its scale and M-Pesa integration; Faiba has competed aggressively on cost; and Zuku has focused on bundled TV and internet packages. Airtel’s model wants to cut across all three.

Kenya’s fixed internet base has reached 2,461,981 subscriptions, with fiber connections accounting for 1,378,198 of those and continuing to expand quarter-on-quarter.

Households and businesses are moving away from mobile data as the primary connection, and Airtel wants a seat at that table.

By integrating broadband with its existing mobile network, mobile money infrastructure, and customer app, Airtel is consolidating service delivery into a single platform.

It is a familiar playbook, one that has worked on mobile and notably for its main competitor in Kenya, Safaricom. 

The question now is whether competitive pricing and ecosystem integration can overcome the infrastructure and trust gap that comes with entering a market years after the leaders.