Communications Authority of Kenya(CA) has released the latest statistics for the communications sector in the country. The report is based on data provided by service providers in the communications sector as per their license conditions.
The report is for the period between 1st October to 31st December 2019, on the following service categories:
- Mobile Telephony Services
- Fixed Telephony Services
- Data/Internet Services
- Postal and Courier Services
Mobile services
The number of active mobile subscriptions in the country increased to 54.5 million from 53.2 million from the previous period. This seems weird for a country that has a population of 47 million but it is due to to multiple SIM ownership by customers. This could be why double SIM phones are popular in Kenya.
| Name of operator/Indicator
|
Dec-19 | Sep-19 | Quarterly
Variation (% ) |
||||
| Pre-paid
|
Post-paid | Total | Pre-paid | Post-paid | Total | ||
| Total Mobile Subscriptions | 53,266,480 | 1,289,017 | 54,555,497 | 51,786,199 | 1,462,378 | 53,248,577 | 2.5 |
| Safaricom PLC Airtel Networks
Limited Telkom Kenya Limited |
34,161,953 | 1,173,154 | 35,335,107 | 33,211,176 | 1,358,893 | 34,570,069 | 2.2 |
| 14,021,519 | 97,050 | 14,118,569 | 13,034,554 | 88,038 | 13,122,592 | 7.6 | |
| 3,373,133 | 18,813 | 3,391,946 | 3,543,796 | 15,447 | 3,559,243 | -4.70 | |
| Equitel
Mobile Pay Limited* |
1,709,875 | 0 | 1,709,875 | 1,901,848 | 0 | 1,901,848 | -10.1 |
| – | – | – | 94,825 | 0 | 94,825 |
Mobile money
The number of active registered mobile money subscriptions was 28.9 million and the number of active mobile money agents at 205,328. M-Pesa recorded the highest market share of 98.8 percent, whereas T-Kash recorded the lowest market share of 0.07 percent.
| Mobile Money Brand/Indicator | M-Pesa | Airtel Money | T-Kash | Totals |
| Agents
Active Registered Mobile Money Subscriptions Value of C2B Transfers in KShs. Value of B2C Transfers in Kshs Value of B2B Transfers in Kshs. Value of C2GTransfers in Kshs. Volume of P2P Transfers Value of P2PTransfers in Kshs. Total value of Deposits in Kshs |
175,959 | 26,313 | 3,056 | 205,328 |
| 28,627,861 | 328,938 | 19,607 | 28,976,406 | |
| 293,789,439,864 | 201,296,536 | 20,942,930 | 294,011,679,330 | |
| 377,185,559,819 | 219,140,740 | 8,582,033 | 377,413,282,592 | |
| 859,614,820,943 | – | – | 859,614,820,943 | |
| 9,709,364,860 | 22,221,469 | 0 | 9,731,586,329 | |
| 460,600,528 | 3,666,458 | 86,481 | 464,353,467 | |
| 684,005,904,527 | 426,493,537 | 75,587,883 | 684,507,985,947 | |
| 604,968,609,203 | 1,963,158,344 | 27,923,145 | 606,959,690,692 |
Voice Traffic
The total local mobile voice traffic originating from Safaricom PLC networks decreased to 10.048 billion minutes from 10.084 billion minutes recorded in the previous quarter. Local mobile voice traffic for Airtel Networks Kenya Limited dropped to 4.3 billion minutes during the period under review, from 7.2 billion minutes registered in the preceding quarter.
Telkom Kenya registered a total of 515.3 million minutes down from 552.8 million minutes recorded during previous quarter.
| Period | Name of
Operator /Indicato r |
Safaricom PLC | Airtel Networks Kenya Limited | Telkom
Kenya Limited |
Equitel | Mobile
Pay Limited* |
Total | |||
| Oct-Dec 19 | On-net | 9,551,360,114 | 3,368,535,646 | 312,854,640 | 4,739,839 | – | 13,237,490,23 9 | |||
| Off-net | 496,988,306 | 1,004,722,340 | 202,506,322 | 28,260,793 | – | 1,732,477,761 | ||||
| Total | 10,048,348,420 | 4,373,257,986 | 515,360,962 | 33,000,632 | – | 14,969,968,00 0 | ||||
| Market share (%) | 67.1 | 29.2 | 3.4 | 0.2 | – | |||||
| Jul – Sep
19 |
On-net
|
9,575,631,209 | 6,230,116,858 | 336,936,653 | 4,859,545 | 3,271 | 16,147,547,53 6 | |||
| Off-net | 509,174,237 | 970,441,315 | 215,909,212 | 28,869,802 | 27,810 | 1,724,422,376 | ||||
| Total | 10,084,805,446 | 7,200,558,173 | 552,845,865 | 33,729,347 | 31,081 | 17,871,969,91 2 | ||||
| Market share (%) | 56.4 | 40.3 | 3.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | |||||
SMS
The total number of short messages sent were 15.6 billion down from 17.2 billion messages recorded during the previous quarter.
| Period | Name of
Operator/ Indicator |
Safaricom PLC | Airtel Networks Kenya Limited | Telkom
Kenya Limited |
Equitel | Mobile
Pay Limited* |
Total | |||
| Oct-
Dec 19 |
On-net | 14,178,377,276 | 209,435,990 | 4,371,905 | 1,982,381 | – | 14,404,167,552 | |||
| Off-net | 508,048,109 | 595,487,013 | 96,484,801 | 5,517,314 | – | 1,205,537,237 | ||||
| Total | 14,686,425,385 | 804,923,003 | 110,856,70
6 |
7,499,695 | – | 15,609,704,789 | ||||
| Market share (%) | 94.1 | 5.2 | 0.7 | 0.0 | – | |||||
| On-net | 15,968,436,626 | 363,830,758 | 16,656,809 | 2,556,209 | 2,503 | 16,351,482,905 | ||||
| Jul –
Sep 19 |
Off-net | 424,935,622 | 301,784,521 | 107,604,55 0 | 5,358,237 | 21,163 | 839,704,093 | |||
| Total | 16,393,372,248 | 665,615,279 | 124,261,35 9 | 7,914,446 | 23,666 | 17,191,186,998
|
||||
| Market share (%) | 95.4 | 3.9 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |||||
Data and Broadband Services
The total internet subscriptions declined to stand at 39.6 million, of which 22.0 million subscriptions were on broadband.
| Indicator/Period | Data/Internet Subscriptions | Broadband
Subscriptions |
| Total Wireless Subscriptions | 39,227,708 | 21,657,431 |
| Mobile Data Subscriptions
Terrestrial Wireless Data Subscribers Satellite Data Subscribers Total Fixed (Wired) Subscriptions Fixed DSL Data Subscribers Fixed Fibre Optic Data Subscribers Fixed Cable Modem Subscribers Other Fixed Data Subscribers (e.g. Radio) |
39,156,202 | 21,595,570 |
| 70,035 | 60,436 | |
| 1,471 | 1425 | |
| 429,382 | 422,720 | |
| 751 | 704 | |
| 268,753 | 262,138 | |
| 158,188 | 158,188 | |
| 1,690 | 1,690 | |
| Total Subscriptions | 39,657,090 | 22,080,151 |
Fixed Data Subscriptions per Service Provider
Wananchi Group leads the pack in terms of Provision of fibre to customers partly due to its Zuku (home) and Simbanet (home). Safaricom is following closely and it is expected that it will overtake Zuku soon due to its continued expansion of especially its home service
| Name of service Provider | Number of data/internet subscriptions | Percentage Market share |
| Wananchi Group (Kenya) Ltd (Zuku and Simbanet)
Safaricom PLC Jamii Telecommunications Ltd Poa Internet Kenya Ltd Mawingu Networks Ltd Liquid Telecommunications Kenya Limited Internet Solutions Kenya Ltd Telkom Kenya Ltd Frontier Optical Networks Ltd Other Fixed Service providers |
175,433 | 35.0 |
| 165,810 | 33.1 | |
| 78,149 | 15.6 | |
| 45,577 | 9.1 | |
| 10,390 | 2.1 | |
| 9,444 | 1.9 | |
| 8,877 | 1.8 | |
| 4,400 | 0.9 | |
| 558 | 0.1 | |
| 2,250 | 0.4 |
International Internet Bandwidth (Gbps)
| Indicator/ Operator | Oct-D | ec 19 | Jul-Sep 19 | Quarterly Variation (%) |
| Total Available (Lit/Equip)
Bandwidth Capacity |
6,241.84 | 5,374.02 | 16.1 | |
| Undersea Bandwidth Capacity
Satellite Bandwidth Capacity |
SEACOM | 2,940.00 | 2,840.00 | 3.5 |
| TEAMS | 1,618.00 | 1,000.00 | 61.8 | |
| EASSY | 1,430.00 | 1,280.00 | 11.7 | |
| Lion 2 | 248.32 | 248.30 | 0.0 | |
| 5.52 | 5.72 | -3.5 |
Utilized Bandwidth in Gbps
| Total Utilized Bandwidth Capacity Undersea Bandwidth Capacity
Satellite Internet Capacity |
2,720.26 | 1,508.61 | 80.3 |
| 2,717.56 | 1,503.4 | 80.8 | |
| 2.70 | 5.21 | -48.2 |
Registered Domain Names
The total number of domain names dropped during the period under review to post 91,940 domains from 93,003 domains posted during the previous period.
| SUB_DOMAIN | Oct-Dec 19 | Jul- Sep 19 | |||
| USE | Domains % Users | Domains % Users | |||
| CO.KE | Companies | 87,243 | 94.89 | 88,024 | 94.65 |
| OR.KE
AC.KE SC.KE NE.KE ME.KE MOBI.KE INFO.KE GO.KE Total |
Non-Profit-Making Organizations | 1,831 | 1.99 | 1,894 | 2.04 |
| Institutions of Higher Education | 889 | 0.97 | 918 | 0.99 | |
| Lower and Middle Level Institutions | 902 | 0.98 | 1,075 | 1.16 | |
| Personal Websites and E-mail | 96 | 0.10 | 109 | 0.12 | |
| Personal Websites and E-mail | 219 | 0.25 | 238 | 0.26 | |
| Mobile Content | 40 | 0.04 | 44 | 0.05 | |
| Information | 155 | 0.17 | 138 | 0.15 | |
| Government Institutions | 565 | 0.61 | 563 | 0.61 | |
| 91,940 | 93,003 | -1.14 | |||
Cyber Threat Statistics
The National KE-CIRT/CC detected 37.1 million cyber threats as compared to 25.2 million cyber threat events detected in the period July – September 2019. This was a 47.2 percent increase as compared to the previous quarter, which is attributed to an exponentially high number of malware threats detected.
| Cyber Threat | Oct-Dec 19 | Jul-Sep 19 | Quarterly Variation (%) |
| Totals
Malware DDOS/Botnet Web Application Attacks System vulnerabilities |
37,133,200 | 25,211,269 | 47.2 |
| 34,854,959 | 20,540,231 | 69.7 | |
| 346,704 | 573,421 | -39.5 | |
| 1,908,001 | 4,069,671 | -53.1 | |
| 23,536 | 27,946 | -15.8 |