CAK Q3 2016 Results Released – Bandwidth Adoption up by 26.3%

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) has released Q3 2016 results and it looks like mobile penetration is still going up.

There are now 38.3 million mobile subscriptions, up from 37.7 million the previous quarter.

On average, each subscriber called for 93.2 minutes per month, up from 89 minutes. SMS dropped significantly by 19.7 percent from the previous quarter. This was attributed to the popularity of services like WhatsApp among others.

Internet subscriptions within the quarter also saw a 3.8 percent growth with mobile data / Internet accounting for the largest growth. This was largely due to the expansion of 3G services. Currently 78 percent of the population has 3G while 94.4 percent has 2G.

Domain registration saw significant growth of 13 percent to total 58, 259 up from 51, 548 the previous quarter.

Safaricom Kenya Ltd. gained a market share of 0.9 percent within this period. It’s total market share now stands at 65.6 percent.

Airtel Networks on the other hand lost its market share by 1.7 percent to stand at 17.5 percent market share. This loss was attributed to the new SIM card regulations. Over 500,000 subscribers were disconnected from the service following a SIM barring exercise.

Orange Kenya Ltd saw 0.1 percent rise to stand at 12.5 percent. Finserve Africa Ltd (Equitel) gained 0.7 percent to stand at 4.4 percent market share. Sema Mobile Services, the latest entrant into the market gained 158 subscriptions.

Of particular is the growth in broadband Internet during this period. Broadband subscriptions grew by 26.3 percent to reach 7.9 million. This means that broadband penetration in the country now sands at 18.6 percent.

Speeds of less or equal to 1Mbps recorded the highest subscriptions while those of 256Kbps continue to decline. This is proof of access and affordability of faster Internet speeds.

Overall, the report is a good sign of growth and adoption of mobile and Internet services. We can’t wait to see what the next quarter brings.