In a turn of events that is making consumers in the shrinking landline market in Kenya happy, the telecoms war between Safaricom and old timer Orange Telkom has seen lowering charges among other incentives targeted at getting the bigger slice of the market.

The recent price war was waged by Safaricom whose newest tarriff charges Ksh.4 .a minute for calling within and across networks.

On the other hand, Orange charges its customers between Ksh.6.00 and Ksh. 12.00 to call within and outside the network.

In an advertisement in the local dailies to customers who are mainly institutions, Safaricom said:”Hang up on high cost landline costs.”

“Cut your costs and save thousands of shillings. Our landline rates are the best in the business. Why call less when you can talk more,” read another part of the advert.

The Communications Authority Q1 Sector Statistics Report for 2014-2015 revealed that the number of fixed lines in the country continued to decline within the quarter under review registering total lines (fixed wired and fixed wireless) at 192,778.

This was a decline of 4.2 per cent from 201,233 lines recorded during the previous quarter.

“The number of fixed (wired) lines declined from 52,053 during the last quarter to 50,018 during the quarter under review. This represents a decline of 3.9 per cent during the quarter, which however, when compared to the same period of the previous year shows growth of 3.6 per cent. In the same way the number of fixed wireless subscriptions declined from 149,180 during the last quarter to 142,760 in the quarter under review, representing a decline of 4.3 per cent during the period and 4.7 per cent drop when compared to the same period of the previous year,” read part of the report.

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