Mobile subscribtions rise to 49.5 million in Q2 2018/19

The number of active mobile subscriptions in the county grew by 6.2% between October and December last year from the previous quarter to stand at 49.5 million. This translated to a mobile
penetration level of 106.2%, the Communications Authority of Kenya’s Second Quarter Sector Statistics Report 2018/19 shows.

The penetration level of more than 100% is attributed to the multiple SIM cards ownership in the country.

Further, the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS) report published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in 2018 indicated that at least 30 per cent of Kenyans owned more than one SIM card.

There were over 2.8 million net additions in mobile subscriptions in the quarter. The substantial increase could be attributed to Safaricom running a campaign dubbed Safaricom @ 18 promotion to its customers during the period under review.

However, the report shows Safaricom’s market share for mobile subscriptions dropped by 0.9% to stand at 63.3%. On the other hand, Airtel Networks Limited gained 1.1% to record a market share of 23.4%. The market shares for Telkom Kenya Limited, Finserve Africa Limited and Mobile Pay Limited were recorded at 9.0, 4.2 and 0.2% respectively.

During the quarter under review, the number of total active mobile money subscriptions and agents stood at 31.6 million and 223,931 respectively. A total of 787.8 million transactions (P2P and withdrawals) valued at Ksh 2.1 trillion were made.

There were 586.9 million mobile commerce transactions registered which were valued at Ksh 1.8 trillion while the value of person-to-person (P2P) transfers amounted to Ksh 731.9 billion.

The number of mobile in-ports registered during the period under review dropped to 382 from
566 in-ports reported during the previous quarter.

Mobile voice traffic originating and terminating on the same network grew by 2.0 %to register 12.9 billion minutes from 12.6 billion minutes reported in the previous quarter. Similarly, mobile voice traffic terminating to other mobile networks increased to 1.7 billion minutes from 1.6 billion minutes registered last quarter.

Mobile voice traffic terminating to fixed networks dropped by 2.6% to record 13.9 million minutes.

The total mobile voice traffic recorded by Safaricom during the second quarter increased to 9.5 billion minutes from 8.9 billion minutes reported in the first quarter. Consequently, its voice market share rose by 2.1% to 64.3%. The increase is attributed to Safaricom @ 18 promotion offered by the operator to its customers during the quarter. The promotion enabled the Safaricom subscribers to make calls for as low as one shilling per minute for 18 minutes for both on-net and off net.

Airtel Networks Limited reported a drop of 5.6% in total mobile voice traffic from 4.7 billion minutes to 4.5 billion minutes during the period under review. As a result, its mobile voice market share declined by 2.6% to 30.7%.

The total local mobile voice traffic for Telkom Kenya Limited increased to 706.5 million minutes from 619.3 million minutes reported in the first quarter. This increase could be attributed to “Telkom Free Zones campaign” promotion, which allowed its pre-paid customers to enjoy free on-net calls in some targeted regions across the county.

The total outgoing local mobile voice traffic recorded by Finserve Africa Limited declined during the review period to post 35.2 million minutes from 38.2 million minutes registered in the
preceding quarter.

Mobile Pay Limited registered a total of 29,961 minutes during the quarter compared to 29,482
minutes recorded in the previous quarter.

The number of SMS sent during the period ending December 2018 rose by 17.6% to post 18.1 billion from 15.4 billion messages recorded during the period ending in September 2018.

The increase is attributed to the busy festive season and the national examination period during which friends and relatives exchanged messages of goodwill.

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The minutes of use per month per subscription stood at 99.2 down from 102.9 registered during the previous quarter. On the other hand, SMS per month per subscription rose to 122.5 from 110.6 recorded during the first quarter.