Airtel has gained 800,000 new subscribers, encroaching into Safaricom and Telkom market shares in the three months to September 2023, according to the latest report.
At the same time, Airtel recorded a notable increase in mobile broadband subscriptions in the 2023/24 financial year, according to the Communication Authority of Kenya first quarter report.
On the other hand, Safaricom lost 0.4 percent of its overall market share which reduced from 66.1 percent in the 4th quarter of 2022/23 financial year to 65.7 percent this quarter.
Despite the drop in market share, Safaricom registered 200,000 new subscribers in three months to September 2023.
Meanwhile, Airtel increased its new subscribers by 800,000 over the review period from 18.1 million to 18.9 million.
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Still on the same, Airtel increased its share from 27.2 percent to 28.2 percent while Telkom lost its share from 3.8 percent to 3.1 percent with a total number of 2,110,079 subscribers.
Equity Bank’s (Equitel) also lost its market share from 2.3 to 2.2 percent with 1.5,508,285 subscribers in the three months to September 2023.
In the period, Jamii Telkom grew its subscribers by 0.1 per cent to 0.7 per cent of the overall market share, with a total of 456,277 subscribers.
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“Safaricom PLC and Telekom Kenya limited lost their market share in mobile (SIM) and broadband subscriptions as Airtel gained in both areas,” CA noted in the report.
Despite the drop in the market share, Safaricom still leads with 61.9 percent of subscribers in the broadband category.
Airtel is second with 32.7 percent of the broadband category despite an increase in the number of subscribers in the last quarter.
In third position is Telkom Kenya with 2.5 percent, as Equitel with 1.6 percent takes fourth position, and Jamii Telecom with 1.3 percent at 5th position.
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According to CA, between July and September 2023, the total number of mobile phones accessing mobile networks was 64.67 million.
The CA further noted that mobile money subscriptions were 38.1 million, representing 75.2 percent penetration rate.
In addition, the total number of local mobile voice traffic increased by 4 percent to 22.2 billion minutes in the last quarter.
