Three million mobile lines were activated in Kenya between September and December 2010, making it the highest subscriber growth period compared to other quarters in the East African country.
This is according to the Communications Commission of Kenya's (CCK's) latest report, compiled from operators' compliance return forms.
Although the quarter ending December 2010 saw net growth of subscribers for all four networks in the country, Orange Telkom and Airtel added to their market share at the expense of Safaricom and Essar Telkom.
Orange Telkom, with a market share of 8.5%, added the most subscribers to its network, with 972 982 new subscriptions. Airtel added 814 708, while 736 777 new subscribers joined Safaricom, the leading mobile operator by subscribers, with nearly 70% market share.
The 12% overall subscriber growth, says the CCK report, was a result of aggressive marketing and promotion by all operators. The commission's deliberate move to reduce interconnection rates and intense competition between operators also played a part to increase mobile subscription from 22.3 million to 24.96 million.
Overall penetration rose to 64.2%, from 56.9% in September 2010, with mobile service accounting for 63.2%. Fixed-lines continued to spiral downward, as only 226 587 lines were added to the network, while fixed wireless gained marginally, with 154 000 new connections.
The CCK's reduction of interconnection rates between networks saw the number of minutes spent across networks jump from 405 million to 688 million.
“The tariff decline for the period September 2010 to December 2010 is attributed to an interconnection determination issued by the CCK in August 2010, which reduced termination rates from Sh4.43 to Sh2.21, coupled with increased competition among operators in the mobile market, which followed the acquisition of Zain by Bharti Airtel whose business strategy seems to target the mass market,” explains the report.
The total number of Internet subscriptions increased to 4.7 million by the end of December 2010, from 3.2 million in the previous quarter, pushing the total number of Internet users to 10.2 million.
The growth in the data market is attributed to mobile operators rolling out their 3G services.
“Mobile data Internet subscriptions through GPRS/EDGE and 3G continue to dominate Internet subscriptions and accounted for 99% of the total subscriptions during the period,” adds the report.
Mobile tariffs continued to tumble as competition in both voice and data markets intensified. The average tariff for on net calls declined to Sh2.67 per minute, from Sh3.92 per minute in the previous quarter, while the average tariff for off-net calls during the quarter was Sh3.47, down from Sh5.10 per minute in the previous quarter.
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