Kenya's Mobile Penetration Hits 88 Percent

According to the quarterly sector statistics report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), the uptake of mobile services by Kenyans continued to grow leading to mobile penetration growing to 88.1per cent with 37.8million subscribers up from 36.1 million in the previous quarter.

This was announced through an article, which was accompanied by the report, published on the CA's official website informing readers of when the growth occurred.

"The uptake of mobile services by Kenyans continued to grow during the first quarter of the 2015/16 Financial year spanning July to September 2015." The article read.

The report shows that pre-paid subscriptions continue to dominate the mobile telephony sector, registering 36.8 million subscribers, accounting for 97.3 per cent of the total subscriptions. Post-paid subscriptions saw a marginal increase to 989,889 up from 963,684 in the previous quarter.

Other considerable gains were recorded in the Internet/data market, which has registered 21.6 million subscriptions up from 19.9 million in the last quarter. The number of Internet users grew to 31.9 million from 29.6 million in the previous quarter. Consequently, the portion of the Kenyan population accessing Internet services reached 74.2 per 100 inhabitants up from 69.0 per 100 inhabitants recorded in the previous quarter.

The number of broadband subscriptions increased by 19.3 per cent to reach 6.3 million up from 5.3 million subscriptions recorded during the previous quarter marking a penetration level of 14.7 per cent.

There was heightened activity in the voice segment, which saw local mobile traffic increase significantly by 18.2 per cent to 10.8 billion minutes up from 9.2 billion minutes posted during the previous quarter. On average, each subscriber talked for 95.8 minutes per month during the quarter up from 84.9 minutes the previous quarter. This was catalysed by special offers and promotions carried out by the operators during the period.

Mobile money transfer service subscriptions increased to 28.7 million up from 27.7 million the previous quarter, with the number of mobile money agents recorded at 135,724 up from 129,357 in the previous quarter.

In the postal and courier sub-sector, the number of letters sent locally declined significantly by 17.2 per cent to register 12.9 million down from 15.6 million letters sent during the previous quarter. International incoming letters increased by 10.8 per cent to post 2.4 million letters up from 2.2 million letters received during the previous quarter. Similarly, international outgoing letters increased to 1.37 million up from 1.35 million letters sent during the previous quarter.

SOURCE:CIO EAST AFRICA