2023 saw minimal change in the Kenyan telecommunication industry. Safaricom remains the dominant player, but Airtel Kenya managed to capture a slightly larger share of the market while Safaricom experienced a minor decline.
Safaricom boasts 44.1 million SIM subscriptions, with 1.1 million being postpaid. Notably, they lost over 50,000 postpaid subscribers in a single quarter. They retain a significant portion of the prepaid market, holding 42.9 million prepaid SIM cards. This is according to data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
Airtel’s numbers remain lower than Safaricom’s. They have 104,768 postpaid and 18.8 million prepaid SIM subscriptions. However, the 18.93 million total subscribers represent a 1% market share gain for Airtel, rising from 27.2% to 28.2% in the quarter ending September 2023.. Safaricom’s market share dipped slightly from 66.1% to 65.7%.
Airtel now holds 32.7% of the mobile broadband market, a 2.2% increase from the previous quarter (30.5%). Conversely, Safaricom lost 0.9% share, dropping from 62.8% to 61.9%.
Cost: Airtel’s Potential Advantage
Despite the small shift in market share, it’s too early to call a significant change in the industry. However, cost appears to be Airtel’s main advantage over Safaricom. Safaricom charges a flat rate of KES 4.87 per minute for voice calls and KES 4.87 per MB for mobile data.
Airtel Kenya’s average pay-as-you-go (PAYG) tariffs are:
- Voice: KES 2.78 per minute (on-net), KES 4.50 per minute (off-net)
- Data: KES 4.50 per MB.
Airtel’s lower data costs might explain their gains in broadband subscriptions. In terms of the on-net tariff Airtel has for a while now been the leader in average on-net calls statistics. The gloomy economic outlook may have made more people consider the network to save on voice calls costs. Additionally, Airtel Money offers lower fees than M-pesa, with free transactions for certain services like purchasing electricity tokens.
Unfortunately, Kenyans face limited options when it comes to network quality. In 2023, all Kenyan Telcos, including Safaricom, saw their Quality of Service (QoS) performance decline. Only Safaricom managed to meet the Communications Authority’s (CA) threshold score.
Consumers seeking lower costs might find Airtel appealing, but overall network quality remains a concern across the industry. The company is currently in a network expansion process.
