Kenyans chatting more, talking less on phone — report

A new report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) indicates that Kenyans are chatting more online on mobile phones and the number of Internet subscriptions grew by 1.3 per cent by March 2014. PHOTO | FILE NATION

Kenyans are chatting more online and talking less to each other on mobile phones, the latest report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) indicates.

The report also indicates that with more Internet use, Kenyans are sending fewer SMSs.

The number of Internet subscriptions grew by 1.3 per cent by March 2014 to reach 13.3 million subscriptions, up from 13.1 million recorded in December last year.

“The number of estimated internet users increased by 1.9 per cent to reach 21.6 million compared to 21.2 million estimated during the last quarter,” read the report.

Broadband subscriptions also increased from 1.43 million last year to 1.44 million, according to the authority’s report.

MOBILE VOICE TRAFFIC

It general, mobile subscriptions are still on the rise, with a record 31.8 million by March 2014 despite a decline in calls made.

“Despite the growth in mobile subscriptions, there was a recorded decline in local mobile voice traffic of 2.7 per cent to post 7.6 billion minutes, down from 7.8 billion minutes recorded during the previous quarter,” read CAK’s report of January to March 2014.

The report put the subscriber average minutes of talk at 80.3 minutes per month, compared with 84.1 minutes registered in December last year.

“SMS traffic declined by 1.0 per cent to reach 6.22 billion down from 6.28 billion messages sent during the preceding quarter.”

The statistics, published on the authority’s website, depicted a rise in mobile money transfer to a record 26.2 million subscriptions from 26.0 million posted in the previous quarter.

“The number of money transfer agents increased by 10.6 per cent to stand at 103,660 agents,” read the report.

CALLS PER SERVICE PROVIDER

This even as the Competition Authority of Kenya last week declined to order a cut in fees charged for making mobile-phone money transfers across different networks in a case filed by Airtel against rival firm Safaricom.

In the calls per service provider captured in the report, Telkom (Orange) was the only company that showed an increase of 0.5 per cent in minutes of talk time compared with December last year, with 234 minutes compared to 208.

Safaricom went down from 6.1 billion minutes to 6 billion minutes though the company increased its market share by 0.3 per cent.

Airtel Networks Limited lost 0.4 percentage shares to reach 10.9 per cent, equivalent to 835 million minutes during the quarter, down from 892 million minutes posted during the last quarter.

Essar Telecom Limited recorded a 0.3 percentage drop to post 7.6 per cent shares, corresponding to 583 million minutes in December last year.