This traffic was mainly contributed by growth in on-net traffic that recorded remarkable growth to stand at 1.1 billion minutes up from 821 million minutes/FILE
This traffic was mainly contributed by growth in on-net traffic that recorded remarkable growth to stand at 1.1 billion minutes up from 821 million minutes.
Similarly, off-net traffic grew to 647 million during the quarter up from 474 million minutes posted during the last quarter.
Consequently, the operator’s market share grew by 4.8 percentage points to stand at 21.0 per cent up from 16.2 percent share reported during the previous quarter.
Airtel’s SMS traffic volume gained 2.5 percentage points on market share to stand at 6.9 percent share with 452 million SMS during the quarter up from 324 million messages registered during the last quarter.
The report indicates Airtel is the only operator that has shown consistent growth in SMS traffic over the last four quarters under review. In quarter 1 Airtel had 2.7 percent market share and in quarter 2 the company had 4.4 percent market share of SMS traffic.
The data market has continued to expand over the period with increased growth in subscriptions witnessed during the quarter under review. The number of subscriptions increased by 14.3 percent to stand at 18.8 million up from 16.3 million posted during the last quarter. In relation to the same period of the previous year, growth of 1.3 percent was recorded.
Mobile data continued to dominate the data market with the number of subscriptions registered at 18.6 million up from 16.3 million subscriptions during the last quarter. This represented 14.3 percent growth and 1.3 percent increase compared to the same period of the previous year.
Airtel Networks Limited had 18.5 percent share up from 14.6 percent share representing an increase of 3.9 percentage increase during the quarter. The number of subscriptions, too, expanded to reach 3.4 million up from 2.3 million posted during the previous quarter.
Compared to the previous quarter, Airtel grew its data subscription by 11% and has consistently grown since September 2014.
This growth may be attributed to its innovative UnlimiNET product that champions #UnlimitedConnections to Kenyans by ensuring that they are always connected by the ability to call all networks and remain connected with friends and family on social media platforms and profession networks on the internet even after they run out of data bundles.
Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssefi said: “The growth may also be attributed to our 3G network upgrade exercise in major towns such as Mombasa and Kitale in the month of January in which we deployed the latest wireless technologies that significantly enhanced network signals, data speeds and improved voice quality for our customers.”
This market share growth in data, Voice and SMS traffic is expected to even grow further in the coming quarters as the company reaffirms its commitment in Kenya with the announcement of an ambitious investment program totalling Kshs.19 billion over the next 3 years. The investment will ensure that the Company delivers on its stated commitment to offer the most reliable and best quality network, products and services in the market.
The acquisition of yuMobile subscribers by Airtel Kenya has also contributed to this growth in data, Voice and SMS traffic. For the yuMobile customers, joining the Airtel network has brought a whole new-world of quality experience to them including a much wider and reliable network, better voice call quality, an opportunity to connect faster to the internet including a totally new online experience on Airtel’s 3G network.
