Kenyans talk for 7.4 billion minutes in three months

The number of SMSs also increased from 4.3 billion to 5.2 billion in the quarter under review. FILE

By OKUTTAH MARK


Favourable call rates and intense marketing, marked by tariff promotions, pushed Kenyans to talk more between July and September than a similar quarter in 2012.

Subscribers of the four mobile firms made longer calls, increasing their monthly minutes of usage by 1.5 per cent to 79.6 minutes.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), in its latest quarterly report, says in the previous year the minutes stood at 78.4 recorded in the previous year due to marketing and reduced mobile termination rates (MTRs).

Safaricom, Airtel, yuMobile and Orange subscribers made a total of 7.4 billion minutes in the review quarter, up from 7.1 billion minutes representing a growth of 4.1 per cent.

“The four mobile operators increased their voice traffic during the quarter which could have been triggered by friendly call plans by the operators following the reduction of call termination rates by the Commission from Sh1.44 to Sh1.15 on 1st August 2013,” said CCK in the report.

“The enticing offers and promotions may have encouraged mobile users to call more often or make longer call duration.”

Safaricom recorded the highest voice traffic at 5.9 billion minutes, followed by Airtel at (797 million minutes), yu (621 million minutes).

However, the leading mobile firm is the only operator that lost its market share to reach 79. 1 per cent from the previous 80.2 per cent despite having recorded the highest voice traffic during the period.

Airtel and yu increased their voice traffic share by 0.3 per cent to reach 10.7 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively. Orange gained 0.5 percentage points to record 142 million minutes representing 1.9 per cent share of market, up from 1.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

During the period, Safaricom strengthened its grip on Short Message Service (SMS), accounting for 95.6 per cent of the 5.2 billion SMSs sent during the period.

Airtel subscribers sent 175.8 million SMSs accounting for 3.5 per cent, YuMobile accounted for 0.6 per cent (29.4 million) and Orange 0.4 per cent (14.7 million).

“The volume of SMS increased by 19.5 per cent to register 5.2 billion from 4.3 billion posted in the previous quarter. This growth could be attributed to friendly SMS plans....” Each subscriber sent an average of 54 SMS s per month.

The number of subscribers grew by 2.5 per cent to reach 31.3 million up from 30.5 million.