The telecommunications landscape in Kenya is undergoing a transformation as mobile data emerges as the dominant revenue stream for operators.
According to the latest statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), mobile broadband subscriptions grew by 10.5% in one year to reach 61.9 million users. This is up from 56.1 million users 12 months earlier.
In 12 months, the total data consumption surged to 755 TB, representing a 32.86% increase that signals the preference for data-driven communications.
A striking trend in the CA’s Q2 FY2025/26 report is the migration to higher-speed networks.
4G subscriptions jumped 10.4% to 44.2 million users between Q1 and Q2 of FY24/25. 5G, though still nascent, recorded a significant 15.9% growth to 1.7 million subscriptions.
5G and 4G usage has been growing while 2G and 3G numbers keep declining.
Perhaps more telling is how these users are consuming data. 5G subscribers averaged 46.4 GB per month in Q2, up from 40 GB in Q1.
This consumption dwarfed the 14.1 GB consumed by 4G users and the 8.8 GB used by those still on 3G networks.
Mobile Data Surge Tallys Smartphone Growth
Underpinning the data boom is the continued smartphone adoption. Smartphone penetration reached 92.9% of all mobile devices by December 2025, up from 85.2% just three months earlier, a 9.1% quarterly growth.
The decline of feature phone connections by 2.6% to 29.6 million suggests that Kenyans overwhelmingly choose smartphones when replacing their devices.
Kenya now has over 48.7 million smartphones in active use. Growth in 4G and 5G subscriptions signals that the caliber of smartphones is also improving.
READ: Kenya’s Climate Camera Set for ISS Launch Aboard SpaceX Falcon 9
This data shows a fundamental reshaping in how the country’s citizens and residents communicate, work, and access information.
For Kenyan telcos, data service is no longer a supplementary service but a core telecommunications product. Safaricom‘s market share in mobile broadband is at 64.3%, while Airtel Kenya is at 32.0%, meaning the two currently have a lock on the market.
This is no surprise given CA reports that both companies mobile data services have an availability rate above 99%.
There is clearly an appetite for high-speed mobile internet, especially with 5G phones becoming affordable. There is also a preference to use data-reliant platforms to communicate.
Kenyan telcos will be competing for clients based on data offerings and connection reliability. Some operators are responding by repositioning themselves.
Airtel Kenya has introduced home fiber and has recently concluded a pilot on mobile-to-cell satellite services in Kenya.
