According to report by the Communications Authority of Kenya, the number of internet users in the country has grown to reach 26.1 million translating to 64.3 per 100 inhabitants with access to internet. The number of data/internet subscriptions grew by 10.8 percent to reach 16.4 million during the second quarter of the 2014/15 financial year, October to December 2014.
The report reveals that majority of users continue to access the internet through their mobile phones. The increased uptake of data/internet services has been attributed the massive investments by mobile operators and Internet Service Providers into base stations and the last mile fibre optic transmission links to support the increasing bandwidth demand in the country. The increased uptake has also been attributed to the number of promotions carried out by various service providers.
The Communications Authority of Kenya also revealed that the mobile telephony sub-sector saw major changes with the exit of Essar Telkom (yu). The firm was jointly bought out by Safaricom Limited Airtel Networks Limited. This resulted in in shifts in the market share for the remaining operators.
Despite this change, mobile subscriptions continued to grow by 863,803 new subscriptions to reach 33.6million subscribers in the country. Mobile penetration now stands at 82.6 percent.
Subscriptions in the money transfer services dropped by 5.3 percent to post 26.0 million subscriptions down from 26.9 million subscriptions recorded in the previous quarter. This could be attributed to the market exit by Essar Telecom Limited (yu) which held 2.1 million mobile money transfer subscriptions by end of the previous quarter.
The postal and courier sub-sector saw a decline of 5.8 per cent of letters sent locally. There was a slight increase of 2.3 per cent in the number of courier items sent locally. Over the last five quarters, the number of postal and courier outlets has stagnated at 622 and 788 respectively.
Staff Writer
