This archive report was first published on 9 January 2020.
Kenya's mobile market has seen significant growth in recent years, with the Communication Authority (CA) reporting 53.2 million active mobile subscriptions as of September 2019.
According to the CA's 2019/2020 Q1 report, Safaricom leads the market with a 65 percent share, followed by Airtel with 24.6 percent, Telkom with 6.7 percent, Equitel with 3.6 percent, and other operators with 0.2 percent.
Mobile money subscriptions have also seen significant growth, with 31.2 million active users transacting over Ksh1.7 trillion (July-September 2019). There were 235,168 mobile money agents during this period.
Interestingly, the numbers reveal an emerging trend in mobile traffic and usage, where there is increased usage among existing customers rather than from new users.
As a result, net SIM additions have continued to decline for the third straight quarter, from 1.1 million SIM cards in the previous quarter to 1.08 million SIM cards during the period under review.
The CA attributes this decline to market saturation in terms of SIM card uptake.
However, the Authority projects that telcos will introduce price wars in data, voice, and messaging to retain customers, leading to lower prices and improved service quality.
Furthermore, telcos are expected to diversify their product offerings to reduce overreliance on data and voice revenues.
For instance, Safaricom is looking for a location intelligence platform to utilize information gathered from connected devices, which can benefit companies in areas such as loss prevention, supply chain logistics, and customer engagement.
Additionally, the entry of M-post, aiming to create digital postal addresses using customers' mobile phone numbers, is another example of diversification in the market.
