Kenya's telecom sector preps for sales and an IPPO
Kenya's telecom market continues to undergo considerable changes in the wake of increased competition, improved international connectivity, and rapid developments in the mobile market. The country is directly connected to a number of submarine cables. Mombasa is the landing point for LIT's newly completed East and West Africa terrestrial network, while Nairobi country serves as a key junction for onward connectivity to Ethiopia, the Arabian states, and the Far East. While the additional internet capacity has meant that the cost of internet access has fallen dramatically in recent years, allowing services to be affordable to a far greater proportion of the population, the telecom infrastructure remains woefully inadequate. Many millions of people lack any internet access, and what services are available are comparatively slow and expensive.This poor situation poses significant challenges for the government's digital transformation ambitions. There has been insufficient spectrum allocation to enable the MNOs to improve mobile network capacity, and while the launch of Starlink's satellite broadband service in early 2023 may signify some relief for unserved people in rural areas, the high cost of hardware and access makes it unviable for many.
The government is channelling investment in a 100,000km fibre backbone, which is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2026. While thousands of governments offices, schools and health centres will access broadband as a result, much more work needs to be done if Kenya is to realise its potential as a regional ICT hub.
The incumbent fixed-line telco Telkom Kenya has struggled to make headway in this market, prompting a reorganisation in 2018 which included a sale and leaseback arrangement with its mobile tower portfolio. A further restructuring exercise in late 2020 was aimed at repositioning the company for the digital age, and to improve its ability to compete in the market.
Key Developments:
Safaricom opens east Africa's first smartphone assembly plant, with a capacity of three million units annually.Regulator rejects calls to impose reduction in national roaming fees, claiming that fees should be set by commercial negotiation.
Treasury recommends sale of Jamhuri Holdings 60% stake in Telkom Kenya to Infrastructure Corporation of Africa (ICA).
Liquid Intelligent Technologies opens a new cable route between Nairobi and Ethiopia, providing Ethiopia with access to data centres and cloud services in Nairobi.
Safaricom claiming to have signed up over 500,000 5G customers.
Regulator sets mobile termination rate for two years from March 2024.
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Table of Contents
- Key statistics
- Regional Africa Market Comparison
- Market characteristics
- Market Leaders
- Market Challengers
- Market Emergents
- TMI vs GDP
- Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
- Fixed versus mobile broadband penetration
- Country overview
- Telecommunications market
- Market analysis
- Regulatory environment
- Regulatory authority
- Fixed-line developments
- Kenya Communications Act 1998
- Revised Telecommunications Market Structure 2004
- Kenya Communications Amendment Act 2009
- Licence fees
- Universal Service Fund (USF)
- Interconnection
- Number Portability (NP)
- Spectrum auctions
- Foreign ownership
- Telecom sector liberalisation
- Privatisation of Telkom
- Regional telecom licences
- Second national operator (SNO) licensing
- International gateway licences
- Unified licensing regime
- Mobile network developments
- Roaming
- Mobile Termination Rate (MTR)
- International gateways
- Spectrum
- Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
- Network sharing
- Quality of Service (QoS)
- SIM card registration
- Taxes
- Tariff regulation
- Mobile market
- Mobile statistics
- Mobile infrastructure
- 5G
- 4G (LTE)
- 3G
- GSM
- Mobile data
- SMS
- MMS
- Mobile broadband
- Other infrastructure developments
- Major mobile operators
- Mobile market share by operator
- Safaricom
- Airtel Kenya
- Essar Telecom Kenya
- Telkom Kenya
- Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)
- Mobile content and applications
- Mobile money transfer, m-banking
- M-medicine
- Fixed-line broadband market
- Introduction and statistical overview
- Internet backbone infrastructure
- Broadband statistics
- Public internet access locations
- Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
- Internet Exchange Points (IXP)
- Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC)
- National broadband strategy
- ISP market
- Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks
- Other fixed broadband services
- Wireless broadband
- Digital economy
- E-learning
- National research and education network (NREN)
- E-commerce
- E-government
- E-agriculture
- Fixed network operators
- Telkom Kenya
- Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
- Liquid Telecom Kenya (KDN)
- Jamii Telecom
- Access Kenya
- Telecommunications infrastructure
- Overview of the national telecom network
- National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI)
- Liquid Intelligent Technologies
- Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC)
- Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC)
- Safaricom
- MTN
- Fibre infrastructure sharing
- Data centres
- Smart infrastructure
- International infrastructure
- Satellite
- Terrestrial fibre
- Submarine fibre
- Appendix - Historic data
- Glossary of abbreviations
- Related reports
List of Tables
List of Charts
List of Exhibits
Companies Mentioned
- Telkom Kenya
- Jamii Telecom
- Access Kenya (Dimension Data)
- Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC)
- Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC)
- Wananchi
- Safaricom
- Bharti Airtel
- MTN
- Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid Telecom)
- Essar Telkom Kenya
- Mobile Pay (Tangaza Pesa)
- Zioncell Kenya
- Finserve Africa (Equitel)
- Kenya Data Networks (KDN)
- Jamii Telecom
- SimbaNet
- Africa Online
- Access Kenya (Dimension Data)
- Wananchi Online
- Swift Global
- Internet Solutions Kenya (InterConnect)
- Gilat Satellite Networks
- Afsat Communications
- Inmarsat
- Indigo Telecom (Thuraya)
- Nation TV (NTV)
