Kenya’s Mobile Phone Subscribers Hit 32.2 Million

Kenya now has 32.2 million mobile susbscribers according to the latest sector statics report for the period April to June 2014 released by the Communications Authority of Kenya.

According to the report,during the period, “the total number of mobile subscriptions grew by 5.6 per cent to 32.2 million up from 31.8 million subscriptions. This increase was reflected in the mobile penetration in the country which stood at 79.2 per cent.”On the other hand, mobile money transfer subscriptions declined from 26.7 million posted in the previous quarter to 26.6 million while mobile money agents grew by 4.8 per cent to reach 109,286 from 104,323 in the previous quarter.SMS beat voice as it increased from 6.2 billion posted in the previous quarter to 6.8 billion messages representing a growth of 10.8 per cent while outgoing mobile voice traffic declined by 4 per cent to post 7.3 billion minutes down from 7.6 billion recorded in the last quarter.

Data or Internet subscriptions now stand at 14.0 million up from 13.3 million posted in the January to March 2014 period. Mobile data/internet subscriptions led the pack with 13.9million subscriptions overall. The number of internet users also grew by 3 per cent to reach 22.3 million up from 21.6 million reported in the last quarter.

The international internet bandwidth available in the country declined by 2.1 per cent to reach 847,464 Mbps down from 865,714 Mbps recorded in the last quarter. This decline could be attributed to the reported decrease in capacity by Sea Submarine Communications Limited (SEACOM). On the other hand, utilization of international internet bandwidth was 436,016 Mbps representing 51.4 per cent consumption.

The increasing uptake of e-commerce through courier services saw the number of courier items sent increased substantially by 96.3 per cent to reach 937,619 items up from 477,526 sent last in the quarter. An annual review for the financial year 2013/14 indicates that courier traffic stood at 2.6million items, a 72.8 per cent increase compared to the last financial year.