This archive report was first published on 27 August 2019.
On August 27, 2019, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) awarded Airtel Kenya the first new mobile numbers, marking a significant milestone for the telecommunications company.
The new numbers, bearing the prefixes 0100, 0101, and 0102, will be rolled out to Airtel customers, making them the first telco to offer the new prefix number series.
Airtel's main competitor, Safaricom, had also applied for the new numbers but was allocated two million lines with the prefixes 0110 and 0111.
According to the CA, the move was necessitated by the exhaustion of existing prefixes, including 0722, 0723, 0733, and 0734.
Airtel Kenya CEO Prasanta Das Sarma urged subscribers to take advantage of the new numbers by registering with Airtel.
"We are glad to be the first telco to roll out the new prefix numbers and we urge Kenyans looking for new connections to visit any of our SIM selling outlets or Airtel shops and get their new numbers," Mr. Sarma said.
