ICT regulator the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has published new data regarding the state of the telephony market in the country for the second quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year, which ended in December 2022.
According to the CA, there were 63.3 million mobile devices in total as of December 31st, 2022. Among these, feature phones accounted for 53.1% while smartphones accounted for 46.9%.
It has further been revealed that feature phone and smartphone penetration are at 68.1 percent and 60.2 percent, respectively.
This suggests a growing interest in and adoption of smartphones, which is largely driven by the demand for broadband services and ease of accessibility to these devices.
Voice traffic in Kenya
There was a 10.1% increase in domestic mobile voice traffic during the current quarter, resulting in a total of 20.8 billion minutes compared to the previous quarter’s 18.9 billion. This growth is due to promotional offers and deals launched by market players, as well as extended school holidays and the festive season.
| Indicator | Oct-Dec 22 | Jul-Sep 22 | Quarterly Variation (%) |
| Total Outgoing Traffic | 20,846,314,693 | 18,931,359,926 | 10.1 |
| On-net (Own Network – Own Network) | 18,078,317,940 | 16,450,448,487 | 9.9 |
| Off-net (Own Network to Other Mobile Networks) | 2,752,607,034 | 2,463,847,876 | 11.7 |
| Mobile Network to Fixed Network | 15,389,719 | 17,063,562 | -9.8 |
On Airtel Kenya, customers had longer on-net calls, with an average of 2.8 minutes per call.
Meanwhile, Telkom Kenya and Equitel customers had the highest average Minutes of Use per off-net call at 1.3, which is mostly due to the lower calling rates provided by these operators.
| Period | Oct-Dec 2022 | Jul-Sep 2022 | ||
| Operator/Indicator | On-net (Minutes) | Off-net (Minutes) | On-net (Minutes) | Off-net (Minutes) |
| Total Average | 1.7 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 1.0 |
| Safaricom PLC | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.0 |
| Airtel networks Limited | 2.8 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 0.9 |
| Telkom Kenya Limited | 2.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 1.3 |
| Equitel | 2.5 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 1.3 |
| Jamii Telecommunications Limited | 0.1 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 1.1 |
