We use our phones today to do many things but one of its core functions is to make a phone call. Voice calls are still the biggest source of revenue for telcos in the country.
In the Kenyan market, each player has their own voice call rates and it seems that one player’s move is paying off.
According to the latest Communication Authority’s Sector Statistics report, Airtel users talk on phone almost three times more than Safaricom users.
The report shows that an average on-net call on Airtel is 3.2 minutes, which is the highest in the market. In comparison, Safaricom is tied at the bottom with Equitel at an average of 3.2 minutes per call.
Here is the chart:
| Operator | On-net | Off-net |
|---|---|---|
| Safaricom | 1.3 | 0.9 |
| Airtel | 3.2 | 1.0 |
| Telkom | 1.9 | 1.2 |
| Equitel | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Mobile Pay | 2.0 | 2.1 |
The regulator attributes to Airtel’s figure to their lower calling rates or free calls on their network.
Airtel has the Tubonge tarriff where for a subscription fee (daily, weekly or monthly), you can talk to another Airtel customer for free or over Kshs 2 per minute to other networks. The ‘free’ Airtel to Airtel calls have a limit where you get a maximum of 100 minutes daily, which is still quite generous. Such tariffs are the reason why Airtel users are recording the highest average minutes per call in the country.
In the same quarter, Airtel also recorded a rise in voice traffic compared to last quarter. Between July and September of 2019, Airtel recorded 7.2 billion minutes which is up from 6.3 billion minutes recorded last quarter. Airtel’s count is 72% of Safaricom’s total voice traffic yet Safaricom has close to 3 times the number of subscribers.
