Safaricom adds 22,000 lines to fixed internet service

Workers lay fibre-optic cable in Nyeri town on August 18, 2020. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By JOHN MUTUA
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Summary

• Communications Authority (CA) data for the period shows that the telco had 229,406 homes and offices under its fixed internet connections in the period as it increased its share of the market to 35.6 percent.
• This is an increase from 207,398 connections or 33.5 percent of the market share that Safaricom had at the end of June as it continues to pull away from the Wananchi Group-owned Zuku.
• Safaricom’s increase cut the share of its rival, Zuku to 31.4 percent in September or 202,237 fixed connections down from a market share of 32.5 percent as at end of June.

Safaricom added 22,008 new connections to its fixed internet service in the three months to September, driven by the demand for internet services as people worked from home in the wake of the Covid-19 disruptions.

Communications Authority (CA) data for the period shows that the telco had 229,406 homes and offices under its fixed internet connections in the period as it increased its share of the market to 35.6 percent.

This is an increase from 207,398 connections or 33.5 percent of the market share that Safaricom had at the end of June as it continues to pull away from the Wananchi Group-owned Zuku.

Safaricom’s increase cut the share of its rival, Zuku to 31.4 percent in September or 202,237 fixed connections down from a market share of 32.5 percent as at end of June.

The jump comes in the wake of a surge in demand for internet services as companies directed workers to work from home and people spent most of their time in the houses following imposition of measures to curb spread of the Covid-19 disease in March.

“The Internet/data market experienced positive growth with rising dependence on digital platforms for work, learning, healthcare, shopping and entertainment,” CA says in the latest report. Jamii Telecommunications, the third biggest provider of fixed internet connections had 127,914 connections or 19.8 percent of the market in the period under review.

In the period under review, the number of homes and offices connected to fixed internet grew four percent to 644, 814 from 619,579 connections in June as telcos increased investment to match the increasing demand.

The jump in customer numbers strengthens Safaricom’s push to diversify and ramp up revenues from the data and M-Pesa services amid saturation in the voice market.

The telco has since March offered customers with double bandwidth which enables users to access high speed internet at half the price as a way of supporting the government’s call on Kenyans to work from home.