Operators Deactivate 287,214 SIM Cards Registered with Wrong IDs As 15th October Deadline Looms

Mobile operators deactivated 287,214 SIM cards in the three months to June 2022, as the 15th October deadline issued by the Authority for subscribers to validate their registration details nears.

The latest sector statistics report released by the Authority today shows that the SIM cards deactivated were those registered using the wrong identification details. Consumers continue to validate their registration details and through the exercise, some have flagged numbers registered in their name without their knowledge.

The Authority in April this year extended the deadline for subscribers to update their registration details by 15th October 2022.

With the deactivation, the active mobile subscriptions declined to 64.7 million in the quarter up from 64.9 million in the preceding period, translating to a mobile (9SIM) penetration of 130.9 per cent.

In the January-March 2022 quarter, 124,689 SIM cards were deactivated as part of efforts to mitigate misuse of SIM cards for criminal intentions.

Mobile money subscriptions stood at 37.2 million, representing a penetration level of 75.3 per cent. In the period, there were 1.1 billion person-to-person transfers amounting to KSh. 1.1 trillion. On the other hand, the value of deposits stood at KSh. 1.4 trillion.

In 2021, mobile services generated revenues of KSh. 315 billion representing a 12.45 per cent increase compared to 2020. At the same time, investments in the mobile sub-sector grew by 12.41 per cent to stand at KSh. 51.6 billion from KSh. 45.9 billion in 2020.

As of 30th June 2022, there were 59.7 million mobile devices connected to mobile networks with feature phones and smartphones accounting for 32.9 and 26.8 million, respectively. The penetration rates for feature phones and smartphones computed as a percentage of the total population were 66.6 and 54.3 per cent, respectively.

The total number of data/Internet subscriptions went up by 2.3 per cent to reach 47.6 million, whereas the number of broadband subscriptions recorded a slight drop of 0.5 per cent to post 30.1 million,

During the period, 3G broadband subscriptions stood at 11.7 million consuming 73.1 million (GB) of data, while the 4G mobile broadband subscriptions consuming 208 million worth of data.

In broadcasting services, there were 286 commercia free-t-air TV, 160 free-to-air commercial FM radio stations 53 Community radio.

There were 92.8 million cyber threat incidences received by the National Kenya Computer Incidence Response Team (National KE-CIRT) during the period, with 1.9 million advisories issued to various targeted stakeholders.

The volume of domestic letters and courier items rose by 3.8 and 5.0 per cent to stand at 290,910 and 1.1 million items, respectively.

In the same period, there were 97, 596 dot ke domain names.

You can read the full report here.