Mobile Subscriptions Hit a New High as Text Messaging Declines
New Communications Authority data shows subscriber growth accelerating even as SMS usage, voice activity and traditional telecom habits continue to lose ground.
Kenya’s mobile subscriptions climbed to 84.1 million during the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, according to new figures from the Communications Authority. Operators added roughly 5.7 million active subscriptions in three months, one of the largest quarterly increases recorded in recent years.
The growth arrived alongside a different set of numbers.
Text messaging volumes moved lower. So did average voice usage.
The country’s telecom market is still expanding. The services that once defined it are not.
SMS traffic fell 2.7 percent during the quarter to 13.98 billion messages. Average SMS usage dropped from 61 messages per subscription to 55. Domestic mobile voice traffic reached 32.3 billion minutes, yet the average number of minutes generated by each subscription also declined.
Those figures landed during a period when mobile broadband continued adding users.
The Communications Authority recorded 52.9 million mobile broadband subscriptions, up from 49.7 million a quarter earlier. Mobile broadband penetration reached 99.2 percent. Total broadband consumption crossed 800 million gigabytes.
A decade ago, subscriber growth and SMS growth often moved together. New customers generated new messages. The relationship appears weaker today.
For telecom operators, the mobile connection increasingly serves as an access point rather than the destination itself.
Many of the activities that once relied on SMS have migrated elsewhere. Customer service conversations frequently take place through chat applications. Group discussions have moved into messaging platforms. Businesses distribute updates through social media channels. Schools, churches, employers and community organisations often communicate through internet-based groups rather than text broadcasts.
The result is visible in usage patterns.
Even as the number of active mobile subscriptions rose sharply, the average subscriber generated fewer texts and fewer voice minutes than before.
Data consumption moved in the opposite direction.
Average monthly broadband consumption reached 15.1GB per subscriber. Among 5G users, monthly consumption stood at 53.5GB. The difference points to a market where connectivity is increasingly supporting video, streaming, cloud services, gaming, social media and other high-bandwidth activities.
The report also showed continued growth in smartphone adoption. Smartphone connections increased to 50.2 million, while feature phone connections fell to 28.5 million.
That device mix matters.
A smartphone user has immediate access to multiple communications channels operating over a data connection. A text message is no longer the default option available on the handset. It becomes one option among many.
None of this means SMS is disappearing.
Nearly 14 billion messages were still sent during the quarter. Voice traffic remained above 32 billion minutes. Those remain substantial volumes by any measure.
The trajectory, however, has become harder to ignore.
Kenya’s telecom sector continues to attract new subscribers. The market continues to generate enormous amounts of voice and messaging traffic. Yet each additional connection appears to be producing less activity in the services that built the industry.
Growth is increasingly occurring on top of the network rather than inside it.
For operators, future competition may depend less on calls and texts and more on how effectively they support the rising demand for broadband, digital services and always-connected applications that now occupy much of a subscriber’s day.
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