The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) recorded a sharp decline in the volume of letters posted in the second half of last year, as mobile Internet and SMS traffic took up market share, signalling an accelerated shift to technology-based communication, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) reported.
The number of letters posted in the third quarter fell by some four million, or 15.21%, from the 24 million posted in the previous quarter.
“The decline can be attributed to the stiff competition the sector faces from other ICT service providers with efficient and less expensive means of communication,” stated the latest communications report from the CCK.
Kenya's postal traffic was down 35.1% on the same period a year earlier, when 31.7 million letters were posted, representing a dramatic shift in the means of communication.
The slump in letter traffic comes at a time when Kenya's telcos have been competing fiercely for subscribers by offering steep price reductions on voice and SMS services, and through enhanced mobile money transfer and mobile Internet services.
By contrast, it can take up to five days for letters posted from the country's provinces to arrive in Nairobi, where many services and the government are headquartered.
The CCK's report of third-quarter communications traffic also revealed a 27.33% increase in the number of Internet subscribers in Kenya from the second to the third quarter of 2011, with the number of Internet subscriptions reaching 5.4 million in the July to September quarter, compared with 4.2 million in the previous quarter.
The third-quarter growth in Internet subscribers represented a jump of 67.86% on the number of subscribers a year earlier, in the third quarter of 2010.
Moreover, “the number of mobile data/Internet subscriptions represented 99% of the total subscriptions, an indication that the mobile handset has become a popular mode of accessing the Internet”, said the report.
The CCK reported the number of Internet users in Kenya in the third quarter of last year at 14.3 million, up 14% on the previous quarter, and now representing more than a third of the country's population, at 36.3%, compared with 31.8% in the previous three months.
This surge in accessibility is now changing communications on all fronts, with many Kenyans shifting to SMSing and social sites such as Facebook when sending Christmas messages, birthday wishes, New Year's messages, and wishing luck to students sitting for exams; where previously, many sent greetings cards.
This has seen the average number of SMSes sent by Kenyans surge, said the CCK. “An increase of 124.38% was recorded in the number of SMSes per subscriber per month, from 8.5 SMSes during the previous period (quarter two) to 18.99 SMSes per subscriber during the quarter under review (quarter three),” said the report.
“During the period under review, SMSes increased significantly - an indication that the service could have consumed some of the traffic on local letters sent. Compared to the same period of the previous year, a decline of 35.10% was recorded (in letter traffic),” said the CCK.
It is estimated that there are now 26.4 million mobile phone subscribers in Kenya, which has a population of some 42 million. When minors are excluded, that translates into blanket access, with almost all adults now owning a mobile phone.
“The total tele-density during this period increased to 68.1%, up from 65.15% recorded in the period ending 30 June 2011. Of these, mobile penetration accounted for 67.2%,” said the report.
Fixed-line services, owned by PCK's sister company, Telkom Kenya, have been rendered near obsolete by the rise of mobile telephony. “The total number of main fixed-line (fixed terrestrial lines and fixed wireless) subscriptions decreased to 355 493 from 374 942, posting a decline of 5.19%,” reported the CCK.
Telkom Kenya's partnership with France Telecom saw it launch the Orange brand in Kenya, in 2008, with the aim of getting a share of the lucrative mobile market, as its fixed-line services declined. But Orange mobile still only has a 6.2% share of the mobile market, with 2.7 million subscribers.
In the quarter under review, Orange gained 16 686 subscribers out of the 1.2 million new subscriptions.
As Kenyan mobile service providers prepare to roll out 4G networks this year and enhance the coverage already available on the 3G network, the fight for Internet market share is expected to intensify, putting further pressure on the country's postal traffic.
Share