Increased Adoption of Smartphones and Expansion of Mobile Network Infrastructure Drive surge in the Kenya Telecom Sector
The increased adoption of smartphones and the continued investments in high-speed mobile network infrastructure have driven strong growth in country during the third quarter of the 2025/2026.
A report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) indicates that active mobile subscriptions increased by 7.4 per cent to hit 84.1 million during the period under review, pushing the country’s mobile penetration up by 8.2 percentage points to 157.7 per cent. The Authority attributed the growth to aggressive customer win-back campaigns undertaken by mobile operators during the quarter.
Voice communication remained strong during the quarter, with total domestic mobile voice traffic increasing by 2.6 per cent to 32.3 billion minutes. On-net calls accounted for 27.1 billion minutes, while off-net calls stood at 5.2 billion minutes. Prepaid subscriptions continued to dominate the market, accounting for 96.5 per cent of all mobile subscriptions. Growth was also witnessed in mobile data and Internet subscriptions, albeit at a slower pace, growing by 1.0 per cent, with 84.4 percent of those connected through mobile broadband services. In the quarter, there was a continued decline in the subscriptions of 2G and 3G network with subscribers switching to 4G and 5G technologies. The average duration of mobile calls remained unchanged from the previous quarter, with on-net calls averaging 1.8 minutes and off-net calls averaging 1.3 minutes.
Data consumption continued to rise sharply, with mobile broadband usage reaching 800 million gigabytes, representing a 6.0 per cent increase from the previous quarter. Average mobile broadband consumption per subscription grew from 14.6 GB to 15.1 GB. Users on 5G networks recorded the highest average data usage at 53.5 GB per subscription. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) subscriptions, which comprise SIM cards used in devices and machines for automated communication, also recorded significant growth. The segment expanded by 8.8 per cent to reach 2 million subscriptions by the end of the quarter.
Active subscriptions in the mobile money sector maintained an upward trajectory with subscriptions increasing by 3.9 per cent to 53.4 million, translating to a penetration of 100.1 per cent. The mobile penetration hit 147.6 per cent, fueled by the number of mobile devices connected to the network which stood at 78.7 million. Smartphones accounted for most of the devices, representing 63.7 per cent of all mobile phones to the networks, highlighting the growing shift towards internet-enabled devices.
The average duration of mobile calls remained unchanged from the previous quarter, with on-net calls averaging 1.8 minutes and off-net calls averaging 1.3 minutes. The number of detected cyber threat by Kenya Incident Response Team Coordination Centre (KE-CIRT/CC) declined by 26.1 per cent to 3.4 billion compared to 4.6 billion threats recorded in the last quarter. You can read the full report here.