Smartphones drive use of high speed Internet

Corporate News

Mr Wangusi: Cut prices of smart devices have boosted Internet penetration. PHOTO | FILE 

By OKUTTAH MARK

In Summary

• Mobile phone broadband subscriptions form 99 per cent of the total broadband subscriptions.

The number of mobile broadband Internet users has doubled in the past 12 months ended September driven by reduced prices of tablets and smartphones, a telecommunications industry report shows
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The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) latest quarterly report indicates that the number of broadband subscriptions doubled to 6.35 million up from 2.95 million recorded in the previous year. Mobile phone broadband subscriptions form 99 per cent of the total broadband subscriptions.

According to the CA report, broadband speeds less than or equal to 2Mbps recorded the highest numbers of subscriptions while those less than or equal to 256 Kbps recorded the least.

Low-cost smartphones

The prices of smart devices have fallen following the entry of new vendors such Huawei and Techno, especially in the rapidly growing mid-to-low cost smartphones segment. Their budget smartphones range between Sh10,000 and Sh20,000.

“The increase in broadband penetration is as a result of reduced cost of broadband-enabled mobile devices and increased demand for e-services and social networking services,” said the CA director general Francis Wangusi in an interview.

The total number of mobile Internet subscriptions hit 21.6 million up from 14.8 million recorded in similar period previous year. Terrestrial wireless data subscriptions reduced to 13,222 users from 16,999 registered in the same period last year.

The fibre optic subscription hit 100,192 during the period under review up from 70,115, 12 months ago.

Safaricom recorded the largest market share of 64.1 per cent for mobile Internet subscriptions to stand at 13.8 million subscriptions during the period under review. Airtel registered 3.7 million subscriptions and a market share of 17.5 per cent.

Orange recorded 2.8 million subscriptions and acquired a market share of 13.4 per cent, while Finserve Africa Limited recorded 1.0 million subscriptions equivalent of 5.0 percent market shares.

Vast network

Safaricom’s growth on the mobile Internet can be attributed to its vast 3G network that now covers 73 per cent of the population and its 4G network now available in 379 sites in major towns.

Safaricom is the only mobile operator that has rolled out 4G.

The CA recently said that it has put a proposal to its board which if approved will see Airtel and Orange allocated equal share of the preferred 800MHz frequencies for rolling out high speed Internet.

The 800MHz band, according to Airtel, enables an operator to roll out 4G services in a less costly manner because it provides good network coverage with fewer radio infrastructure (radio base stations ) than the 1800MHz, the other broadband spectrum.