SECOND QUARTER SECTOR STATISTICS REPORT FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2016/2017
(OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2016)
Direct any enquirieson the report to:
Director/Competition, Tariffs and Market Analysis
Tel:+254-703 042000, +254-713 172000
Email:
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Disclaimer:
Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the data contained in this report, the Authority is not liable for inaccuracies in any of the information contained in this report, which is contingent upon the operators/service providers’ compliance returns.
Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1 CELLULAR MOBILE SERVICES
1.1Mobile Subscriptions
1.2Mobile Money Transfer
1.3Mobile Number Portability
1.4Mobile Traffic and Usage Pattern
1.4.1Voice Traffic
1.4.2Voice Traffic by Operator
1.4.3Minutes of Use
1.4.4Short Messaging Service
1.4.5Roaming Traffic
1.4.6International Mobile Traffic
1.5Mobile Revenue and Investments
1.6Employment in the Mobile Service Industry
2FIXED TELEPHONE SERVICE
2.1Fixed Network Subscriptions
2.2Fixed Network Traffic
3DATA/INTERNET SERVICES
3.1Data/Internet Service
3.2Broadband Services
3.2.1Data/internet broadband subscriptions
3.2.2Broadband subscriptions by Speed
3.3International Bandwidth
3.4Registered Domain Names
3.5Revenue and Investment in the Data/Internet Market
4BROADCASTING
4.1Digital Television
4.2Digital Terrestrial Television sites rollout
4.3Set top Boxes
4.4FM Radio Broadcast
5POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES
5.1Postal and Courier Traffic
5.2Number of Postal and Courier Outlets
5.3Postal and Courier Revenue and Investments
6TARIFFS, PROMOTIONS AND SPECIAL OFFERS
7CONCLUSION
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Mobile Subscriptions
Figure 2 : Net additions in Mobile Subscriptions
Figure 3: Market Share for Mobile Subscriptions per Operator
Figure 4 : Proportion of On-net and Off-net Voice Traffic
Figure 5: Minutes of Use
Figure 6 : Fixed Network Subscriptions
Figure 7: Estimated Number of Internet Users and Internet Penetration
Figure 8 : Mobile data/Internet Subscriptions
Figure 9 : Broadband Subscriptions
Figure 10 : Broadband Subscriptions by Speed
Figure 11: Digital TV Coverage
Figure 12: Number of Postal and Courier Outlets
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 : Mobile Subscription per operator
Table 2 : Mobile Money Transfer Service
Table 3 : Mobile Number Portability
Table 4: Local Mobile Voice Traffic in Minutes
Table 5 : Local Mobile Voice Traffic by Operator
Table 6 : Short Messaging Service per Operator
Table 7 : Roaming Traffic
Table 8: International mobile traffic
Table 9: Mobile Revenue and Investment
Table 10 : Staff in Mobile Sector
Table 11: Local Fixed Network Traffic in Minutes
Table 12 : International Fixed Voice Traffic
Table 13 : Internet Subscriptions and Internet Users
Table 14 : International Internet Available Bandwidth (Mbps)
Table 15 : International Internet Used Bandwidth (Mbps)
Table 16 : Number of Domain names
Table 17 : Data/Internet Revenue and Investment
Table 18 : Postal and Courier Traffic
Table 19 : Postal and Courier Revenue and Investments
Table 20: Tariffs
Table 21: Promotions and Special Offers
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EASSy / Eastern Africa Submarine Cable SystemsLION2 / Lower Indian Ocean Network
GSM / Global Systems for Mobile Communications
Mbps / Megabits per second
MMS / Multimedia Service
MoU / Minutes of Use
SEACOM / Sea Sub-Marine Communications Limited
SIM / Subscriber Identification Module
SMS / Short Messaging Service
TEAMS / The East African Marine System
VSAT / Very Small Aperture Terminal
FY / Financial Year
OTT / Over-The-Top
TV / Television
DTT / Digital Terrestrial Television
FTA / Free to Air
STB / Set Top Boxes
FM / Frequency Modulation
MB / Megabytes
- PRELIMINARY NOTES
- This report is based on data provided by service providers as per their license conditions.
- The information provided in this report is subject to alteration in case of any revisions or updates from the service providers.
- REPORT SUMMARY
The ICT Sector Quarterly Statistics Report for the Second Quarter of the Financial Year 2016/2017 provides an overview of the ICT sector performance and development trends in the following service categories:
- Mobile Telephony Service
- Fixed Telephony Service
- Internet/Data Service
- Registered Domains
- Broadcasting Service
- Postal and Courier Service and;
- Tariffs, Promotions and Special Offers
As at the end of Q2 of FY 2016/17, the number of mobile subscriptions experienceda nominal growth of 1.0 per cent to reach 38.9 million up from 38.5 million registered during the previous quarter. Subsequently, mobile penetration levelrecorded a growthof0.9 percentage points to stand at 88.2 per cent during the quarter up from 87.3 percent posted during the previous quarter.
The quarter under review registered an increase of385,260 new mobile subscriptions compared to a decline of 1.1 million subscriptions recorded in the previous quarter.
The total number of mobile money subscriptionswas recorded at 31.9 million subscriptions while mobile money agents were recorded at 161,583 during the quarter under review. The volume of transactions made was recorded at 456.6 million with over Ksh.1trillion being transferred among users. During the quarter mobile commerce posted a total of 262.6 million transactions valued at Ksh. 586.4 million. Person to person transfers made during the quarter amounted to Ksh. 515.9 billion.
Mobile number portability registered a decline in the number of in-ports to stand at 153 down from 404 in-ports recorded during the last quarter.
Total traffic originating from one mobile network to another recorded a growth of 0.9 per cent during the quarter under review to stand at 10.8 billion minutes up from 10.7 billion minutes posted during the previous quarter. On the contrary, the minutes of use per month per subscription slightly fell to register 92.7 minutes during the quarter down from last quarter’s 92.8 minutes.
The number ofOutgoing SMS traffic recorded a remarkable growth of 29.1 per cent during the quarter to reach 15.8 billion messages up from 12.2 billion messages sent during the preceding quarter.The overall increase in the number of SMS sent could be attributed toincreased activities during the quarter under review.
During the quarter under review, 36.8 million minutes of total roaming-out voice traffic volume was registered with roaming within EAC countries contributing 32.1 million minutes, while non- EAC countries contributed 4.6 million minutes. Roaming-in voice traffic recorded a total of 30.5 million minutes with in- roamers from EAC countries contributing 25.2 million minutes whereas for non EAC posted 5.2 million minutes.
International Incoming mobile voice traffic posted 147.1 million minutes up from 132.0 million minutes registered in the preceding quarter representing an increase of11.5 per cent during the quarter under review.Traffic received from EAC countries contributed 44.5 million minutes. Conversely, International outgoing mobile traffic was recorded at 116.7 million minutes during the period under review down from 117.5 million minutes posted in the previousquarter representing a decline of0.7 per cent.
The volume of International Incoming mobile SMShas continued on a downward trajectory with the quarter under review recording a drop of 4.2 per cent to stand at 9.2 million messages down from 9.6 million messages recorded in the previous quarter. Similarly, International outgoing messages fell by 16.7 per cent to post 9.0 million messages during the quarter.
The fixed telephone market has continued to record a downward trend recording 72,801 subscriptions during the quarter under review down from 80,288 subscriptions posted in the previous period, representing a 9.3 per cent drop. Fixed terrestrial lines declined to post72,427 subscriptions down from 79,918 connectionsrecorded in the previous quarter. On the hand, fixed wireless experienced a slight increase during the quarter to stand at 374 subscriptions.
The Internet/data segment subscriptions numbersrecorded a growthof3.9 per cent to reach 26.6 million subscriptions up from 25.6 million subscriptions posted during the last quarter. Mobile data subscriptions rose by 3.9 per cent and continued to account for the majority of the subscriptions standingat 26.5 million subscriptions. Terrestrial wireless data subscriptions grew by 87.7 per cent to post 29,724 subscriptions. Fixed fibre optic and fixed cable modem subscriptionsgrew by 8.3 and 2.8 per cent respectively. Consequently, the number of estimated internet users recorded a growth of 4.3 per cent to stand at 39.6 million users compared to 37.7 million usersrecorded during the preceding quarter. Internet penetration stood at89.7 per cent up from 85.3 per cent during the previous quarter.
The number of broadband subscriptions continues to demonstrate an upward trend with the period under review recording at 12.7 million subscriptions up from 11.9 million subscriptions registered during the preceding quarter. Subsequently, broadband penetration level stood at 28.7 per cent during the quarter under review.
During the period under review, the international Internet bandwidth available in the country (Equipped/Lit) remained unchanged at 2.0 million Mbps. In terms of the Used capacity, there was a growth of 2.5 per cent during the quarter to stand at860,300 Mbps up from last quarter’s 839,300 Mbps. The used capacity represented 42.4 percent of the total available bandwidth in the country.
In broadcasting sub sector, the number of freeto-air TV channels on the digital terrestrial platform at the end of the period under review stood at 66 while number of pay TV service providers on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) remained at 2: GoTV and StarTimes. The digital broadcasting signal covers 66per cent of the Kenyan population
In the postal and courier segment, the volume of letters posted experienced a drop of 7.7 per cent to register 15.8 million letters whilethe number of parcels sent grew by 26.8 per cent to post 1.6 million items during the period under review. The volume of letters received grew by 8.9 per cent to stand at 2.2 million up from 2.1 million witnessed in the previous quarter. On the other hand, international outgoing letters declined during the quarter to stand at 1.9 million letters.
During the quarter under review, a total of 31 applications for promotions, special offers and tariffs received from telecommunication service providers which were then reviewed and approved by the Authority.
1CELLULAR MOBILE SERVICES
1.1Mobile Subscriptions
At the end of the period under review, the mobile service sub-sector registered a positive growth to post38.9 million active mobile subscriptionsup from 38.5 million subscriptions recordedduring the previous quarter. This representsa slight growthof 1.0 per cent during the quarter. When compared to the same period of the previous financial year, there is an increase of 1.2 million subscriptions. Subsequently, mobile penetration level grew by 0.9 percentage points during the period under review to stand at 88.2 per cent up from 87.3 per cent recorded last quarter.
The trends in mobile subscriptions and penetration levels are illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Mobile Subscriptions
Source: CA, Operators’ Returns,
As shown in Figure 2, the net additions in mobile subscriptions during the quarter registered an increase of 385,260 subscriptions compared to a decline of 1.1 million subscriptions posted in the last quarter.
Figure 2 : Net additions in Mobile Subscriptions
Source: CA, Operators’ Returns
Safaricom Limited recorded the highest number of mobile subscriptions as at 31st December 2016. It gained 2.2per centage points of the market share to standat71.2 per cent upfrom 69.0 per cent posted last quarter.
Airtel Networks Limited nominally gained 0.1 per centage point market share to record 17.6 percent during the period under review up from 17.5 percent market share recordedin the previous quarter. On the contrary, Telkom Kenya Limitedlost 0.2per centage points to reach 7.4per cent market share from last quarter’s performance of 7.6per cent.
Finserve Africa Limited lost2.1 per centage points of market share during the quarter under review to stand at 3.8per cent. This was mainly attributed to the revision of data by the service provider during the quarter under review.The market share for Sema Mobile Services remained below 0.0 per cent.
Market share for mobile subscriptions per operator are as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Market Share for Mobile Subscriptions per Operator
Source: CA, Operators’ Returns.
During the quarter under review, 96.4 per cent of the mobile subscriptions were pre-paidcompared to 96.5 per cent recorded in the last quarter while the number of post-paid stood at 3.6 per cent subscriptions.
Safaricom Limited total number of subscriptions grew by 4.2 per cent to stand at 27.7 million subscriptions up from 26.6 million subscriptions registered during the previous quarter. It gained by 4.1 percent and 7.0 percent pre-paid and post-paid mobile subscriptions respectively.
Likewise, Airtel Networks Limited experienced an increase in the number of pre-paid subscriptions by 1.4 per cent to stand at 6.7 million subscriptions up from 6.6million subscriptions posted during the last quarter. However, its post-paid subscriptions declined by 6.6 per cent to record 137,664 subscriptions downfrom 147,359 subscriptions reported in the preceding quarter. Its total mobile subscriptions stood at6.8 million which marked an increase of 1.2 per cent from the previous quarter.
Telkom Kenya Limited experienced a marginal decline in the number of pre-paid subscriptions by 0.3 per cent to post 2.88 million subscriptions down from 2.89 million subscriptions recorded in the previous quarter. However, post-paid mobile subscriptions grew by 5.3 per cent to stand at 8,871 up from 8,424 subscriptionsrecorded in the previous quarter. The total subscriptions were registered at 2.8 million down from 2.9 million subscriptions reported during the previous quarter.
Finserve Africa Limitedregistered a total of 1.4 million mobile subscriptions down from 2.2 million subscriptions posted in the previous quarter translating to a decline of 34.5 per cent. This was as a result of revision of data by the operator.
Sema Mobile Services stoodat 270 subscriptions during the quarter under review up from 266 subscriptions recorded in the previous quarter.
The number of pre-paid and post-paid subscriptions by operator is as indicated in Table 1.
Table 1 : Mobile Subscription per operator
Name of operator / Dec-16 / Sep-16 / Quarterly variation (%)Pre-paid / Post-paid / Total / Pre-paid / Post-paid / Total
Safaricom Limited / 26,471,893 / 1,266,834 / 27,738,727 / 25,426,598 / 1,184,484 / 26,611,082 / 4.2
Airtel Networks Limited / 6,711,829 / 137,664 / 6,849,493 / 6,620,306 / 147,359 / 6,767,665 / 1.2
Finserve Africa Limited / 1,496,153 / - / 1,496,153 / 2,283,946 / - / 2,283,946 / -34.5
Telkom Kenya Limited / 2,888,674 / 8,871 / 2,897,545 / 2,925,545 / 8,424 / 2,933,969 / -1.2
Sema Mobile Serrvices / 270 / - / 270 / 266 / - / 266 / 1.5
Total / 37,568,819 / 1,413,369 / 38,982,188 / 37,256,661 / 1,340,267 / 38,596,928 / 1.0
Source: CA, Operators’ Returns.
1.2Mobile Money Transfer
Duringthe quarter under review, the number of mobile money subscriptions was recorded at 31.9 million subscriptions while the number of active mobile money transfer agents stood at 161,583. The volume of transactions (deposits and withdrawals) on this platform was registered at 456.6 million with 1.1trillion Kenya Shillings transferred during the period. Mobile commerce recorded a total of 262.6 million transactions with 586.4 billion Kenya Shillings used to pay for goods and services. The person-to-person transfers amounted to515.9 billion Kenya Shillings during the period.
The trends in mobile money transfer services are as shown in Table 2.
Table 2 : Mobile Money Transfer Service
Service / Dec-16Agents / Subscriptions / Number of transactions / Value of transactions (Kshs) / Mobile commerce transactions / Value of mobile commerce (Kshs) / Person to Person transfers (Kshs)
M-pesa / 124,084 / 21,574,006 / 356,786,745 / 892,878,930,121 / 222,092,539 / 408,641,371,835 / 423,693,636,524
Airtel Money / 18,354 / 6,711,829 / 9,359,291 / 6,579,991,618 / 9,359,291 / 6,579,991,618 / 2,614,634,646
Orange Money / 800 / 194,322 / 31,000 / 80,029,000 / 232,014 / 232,014 / 4,456,990
Equitel
Money / - / 1,240,503 / 89,653,681 / 251,578,380,142 / 30,910,631 / 171,173,634,732 / 89,592,804,266
Mobikash* / 16,749 / 1,772,696 / 815,881 / 127,032,829 / 6,430 / 9,227,168 / 22,876,608
Tangaza* / 1,596 / 503,556 / - / - / - / - / -
Total / 161,583 / 31,996,912 / 456,646,598 / 1,151,244,363,710 / 262,600,905 / 586,404,457,367 / 515,928,409,034
Source: CA, Operators’ Returns,*Provisional data.
1.3Mobile Number Portability
As indicated in Table 3, the number of in-ports stood at 153 down from 404in-ports recorded in the previous quarter which represents a fall of62.1per cent during the period under review.
Table 3 : Mobile Number Portability
Period / Oct -Dec 16 / Jun-Sep 16 / Quarterly Variation (%) / Oct -Dec 15 / Jun-Sep 15 / Quarterly Variation (%)Number of in-ports / 153 / 404 / -62.1 / 234 / 461 / -49.2
Source: CA, Operators’ Returns.
1.4Mobile Traffic and Usage Pattern
1.4.1Voice Traffic
There was a modest quarterly increase in the number of voice minutes originating from the mobile networks by 0.9 per cent. Total outgoing mobile traffic was registered at 10.8 billion minutes during the quarter under review up from 10.7 billion minutes posted in the previous quarter. When compared to the same period of the previous year, a growth of 5.6 percent was recorded.
The nominal growth in total traffic was partially contributed by on-net traffic that rose by 0.8percent up from 9.4 billion minutes recorded during the previous quarter to 9.5 billion minutes posted during the quarter under review.
Similarly, traffic to other mobile networks increased by 1.9 percent to stand at 1.3 billion minutes during the quarter under review up from 1.2 billion minutes recorded during the previous quarter.
Mobile to fixed traffic increased by 3.4 percent during the quarter to record 16.3 million minutes up from 15.6 million minutes posted during the previous quarter. However, when compared to the same period of the previous year a decline of 19.3 percent was registered.The general increase in the mobile voice traffic could mainly be attributed to a busy festive season during the period where many people were communicating to wish their family and friends happy festive season.
Table 4 shows a summary of local mobile voice traffic.
Table 4: Local Mobile Voice Traffic in Minutes
Mobile Traffic / Oct-Dec 16 / Jul-Sep 16 / Quarterly Variation (%) / Oct-Dec 15 / Jul-Sep 15 / Quarterly Variation (%)By Traffic originating (outgoing traffic)
Own Network –Own Network / 9,522,341,685 / 9,446,208,083 / 0.8 / 8,982,304,017 / 9,644,089,586 / -6.9
Own Networkto Other Mobile Networks / 1,321,393,435 / 1,296,192,704 / 1.9 / 1,272,404,250 / 1,212,873,879 / 4.9
Mobile Network to Fixed Network / 16,362,117 / 15,666,971 / 4.4 / 15,968,998 / 19,847,086 / -19.5
Total Traffic Origination (Outgoing) / 10,860,097,237 / 10,758,067,758 / 0.9 / 10,270,677,265 / 10,876,810,551 / -5.6
By Traffic terminating (incoming traffic)
Own Network –Own Network / 9,522,341,685 / 9,446,208,083 / 0.8 / 8,982,304,017 / 9,644,089,586 / -6.9
Other Mobile Networks to Own Network / 1,258,551,962 / 1,257,363,469 / 0.1 / 1,295,667,381 / 1,128,846,645 / 14.8
Fixed Network to Mobile Network / 10,313,024 / 10,428,463 / -1.1 / 9,141,859 / 22,677,742 / -59.7
Total traffic termination (Incoming) / 10,791,206,671 / 10,714,000,015 / 0.7 / 10,287,113,257 / 10,784,305,834 / -4.6
Source: CA, Operators’ Returns.
The total traffic terminated on local mobile networks experienced a growth of 0.7 percent to register 10.79 billion minutes during the quarter up from 10.71 billion minutes recorded during the last quarter. Conversely, there was adecrease of 4.6 percent when related to the same period of the previous year.
There was a nominaldecline in fixed to mobile traffic by 1.1 percent during the quarter under review to post10.3 million minutes down from 10.4 million minutes recorded during the previous quarter. Similarly, a decline of 59.7 percent was observed when compared to the same period of the financial previous year.
1.4.2Voice Traffic by Operator
Safaricom Limited local mobile voice trafficgained 4.3per centage points inmarket share to register 80.6per cent market share up from last quarter’s76.3 percent. Similarly, its total traffic volume increased to 8.7 billion minutesup from 8.1billion minutes registered during the previous quarter. On-net and off-net traffic volumes stood at 8.3 billion and 398 million minutes respectively during the period under review. The increase of its local traffic volumes could be attributed to “Home is Where the heart is” campaign carried out by the operator over the Christmas season where customers were awarded bonus airtime and bundles.
Airtel Networks Limited’s mobile voice traffic declined by a slight margin of 1.1 per cent during the quarter under review to post a total of 1.46 billion minutes down from 1.48 billion minutes reported during the last quarter. Similarly its’voice traffic market share alsodeclined by 0.3percentage points to stand at 13.5per centdown from 13.8per cent recorded during the previous quarter.