99% of Kenya’s total Internet subscription is via mobile data
During the October-December 2016 period, the number of Internet subscriptions grew slightly to stand at 26.6 million subscriptions up from 25.6 million subscriptions recorded in the previous period, July-September 2016. This translated to an Internet/data penetration level of 89.8 percent up from 85.3 percent recorded during the previous quarter.
Subsequently, there was a nominal growth on estimated Internet users of 5.2 percent to stand at 39.6 million up from 37.7 million users reported at the end of the previous period. A reason that might have contributed to increase in the estimated Internet users is long school holidays, which the students subscribed to the data/internet services during the period.
The number of mobile Internet/data subscriptions increased to 26.5 million during the quarter up from 25.5 million subscriptions recorded during the previous period. This translates to a 3.9 percent rise. Looking at the bigger picture, mobile Internet/data subscriptions contributed 99 percent of the total Internet/data subscriptions. This could be attributed to the affordability of smartphones in the country as well as affordable data/internet bundles offered by various Internet service operators.
On dissecting the mobile Internet/data subscriptions, we realise that:
- Safaricom Limited’s market share grew by 3 percentage points to stand at 67.5 percent in the quarter under review up from 63.2 percent posted in the previous quarter.
- Airtel Kenya Limited recorded a significant drop of 5 percentage points in its market share to stand at 19.7 percent down from 21.2 percent.
- Telkom Kenya Limited slightly gained 5 percentage points in its market share to stand at 7.1 percent during the period under review. This was up from 6.6 percent posted in the preceding quarter.
- Finserve Africa Limited (Equitel) reported a decrease in market share of 3 percentage points to stand at 5.6 percent. This was a drop from the market share of 8.9 percent recorded in the previous quarter.
- The market share for Sema Mobile Services remained below 0 percent. It is worth noting that Sema Mobile Service Limited launched its services in the last financial year.
Mobile data/Internet Subscriptions
Source: CA
Terrestrial wireless data subscriptions increased during the period under review to register 29,724 subscriptions up from 15,835 subscriptions recorded during the last quarter marking a sizeable growth of 87.7 percent. This is could be attributed to additional players who provided the service during the quarter under review.
On the other hand, satellite subscriptions registered a remarkable increase to stand at 584 subscriptions down from 598 subscriptions registered in the last quarter. This was essentially a decrease of 2.3 percent. However, compared to the same period of the previous financial year, there was an increase of 19.4 percent.
On the other hand, fixed DSL subscriptions stood at 2,483 subscriptions down from 2,583 subscriptions recorded in the previous quarter representing a 3.9 percent decline.
The number of fixed fibre optic subscriptions grew by 18.0 percent to stand at 39,255 subscriptions during the period up from 33,269 subscriptions recorded the previous period.
Finally, fixed cable modem subscriptions recorded an increase of 2.8 percent to post 86,139 subscriptions up from 83,789 subscriptions recorded in the previous quarter.
