88 million SIM subscriptions and 52 million smartphones show how Kenya's mobile market is changing

Kenya’s mobile market reached almost 88 million SIM subscriptions by June 2026, but the more revealing change is happening in the devices connected to those networks.

Smartphones rose to 52.26 million during the quarter, while feature phones fell to 27.42 million, putting internet-capable devices further ahead of basic handsets. The figures point to a mobile economy where the growth of connections is increasingly tied to smartphones, broadband access and the services that run through them.

The Communications Authority of Kenya recorded 87.99 million mobile SIM subscriptions at the end of the fourth quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year, up 4.6% from 84.09 million three months earlier. That figure should not be read as 88 million individual Kenyans because people and organisations can hold multiple SIMs, while the CA also reports machine-to-machine connections separately. It is better understood as the size of the country’s active mobile connection base.

The device numbers tell a different part of the story. Kenya had 79.7 million mobile devices connected to networks at the end of June, with smartphones accounting for about 52.3 million and feature phones 27.4 million. Smartphones therefore represented roughly two-thirds of connected mobile phones, a considerably larger share than they held a year earlier.

Smartphones are now clearly ahead of feature phones

The latest quarter added more than two million smartphones to the network, with the smartphone count rising 4.2% from 50.18 million in March. Over the same period, feature phones declined by about 1.11 million, a 3.9% drop from 28.53 million.

That movement is important because it changes what a typical mobile connection can be used for. A feature phone can support calls, SMS and basic services, while a smartphone provides access to mobile broadband, video, social platforms, digital financial services, cloud applications and a much wider range of internet-based services.

The CA has been recording this transition for several quarters. In September 2025, smartphones accounted for 59.5% of the 75 million mobile phones connected to Kenyan networks. By March 2026, they represented 63.7% of connected devices, according to the Authority. The June figures push that share to roughly 65.6%.

The direction is also visible in the declining feature-phone base. Feature phones stood at 32.5 million in March 2025, fell to 29.5 million by June, and reached 27.4 million a year later. The market is therefore adding smartphones while the pool of basic handsets continues to contract.

The SIM count is growing alongside a much larger data market

The 88 million SIM figure becomes more useful when viewed alongside mobile data subscriptions. Kenya had 64.26 million mobile data subscriptions in June, up 2.6% from 62.63 million in March and 9.7% from a year earlier.

Mobile broadband accounted for 54.93 million of those subscriptions, representing 85.5% of total mobile data subscriptions. The CA says 4G remained the most widely adopted broadband technology, while consumption on 4G and 5G continued to rise and 3G consumption declined.

The device transition helps explain why. A smartphone is generally capable of supporting a much broader set of data services than a feature phone, so a larger smartphone base creates more potential demand for broadband connectivity. That does not mean every smartphone generates the same amount of traffic, but the composition of the device base is becoming more closely aligned with the growth of mobile internet.

The previous quarter already showed how intensive that demand can become. Mobile broadband consumption reached about 800 million GB in Q3, up 6% from the previous quarter, with average consumption at 15.1 GB per broadband subscription. Users on 5G averaged 53.5 GB, showing how the newer device and network categories can generate much heavier data traffic.

4G remains the mass-market network as 5G grows

The smartphone transition is also changing the technology mix across Kenya’s mobile networks. The CA reported 4G as the most widely adopted broadband technology in June, while the number of 5G subscriptions reached about 2.1 million.

5G remains much smaller than 4G, but its users are consuming substantially more data. The Q3 figures showed average monthly consumption of 53.5 GB for 5G subscriptions compared with 15.1 GB across mobile broadband as a whole, illustrating the difference between the size of a network segment and the amount of traffic it can generate.

The larger story is therefore not simply that Kenya is adding newer network technology. The country is replacing older handsets with devices capable of using higher-speed networks, while mobile broadband is becoming the main route through which those devices access online services.

That combination matters for operators because a larger smartphone population creates demand across several parts of the network at once. It increases the relevance of spectrum, 4G and 5G capacity, backhaul and international connectivity, while also creating more opportunities for services that depend on persistent internet access.

Voice remains large even as the device mix changes

The move toward smartphones has not made conventional mobile services disappear. Domestic mobile voice traffic reached 33.01 billion minutes in the June quarter, up from 32.31 billion minutes in March.

SMS traffic also remained substantial at 14.12 billion messages during the quarter. On-net SMS traffic was almost unchanged from the previous quarter, while off-net SMS increased by 12%.

The longer-term figures show a more complicated picture. Total domestic voice traffic for the 2025/2026 financial year reached 126.7 billion minutes, up 13.6% from 111.6 billion minutes the previous year. SMS traffic, meanwhile, fell slightly year on year to 57.1 billion messages, with the CA pointing to the growing use of over-the-top messaging services such as WhatsApp.

Average use per subscription also declined during the quarter. Average monthly minutes per mobile subscription fell from 128.1 to 125.1, while average SMS use declined from 55.4 to 53.5 messages. The combination suggests that the size of the connection base and the amount of usage generated by each connection are moving differently.

Multiple SIMs still make Kenya’s mobile economy unusually large

The 87.99 million SIM subscriptions also need to be understood alongside the 79.7 million mobile devices connected to networks. The difference reflects the fact that connections and physical devices are not interchangeable measures, while users can maintain multiple SIMs for different networks, purposes or services.

The CA’s mobile penetration figures consequently exceed 100%, a familiar feature of Kenya’s telecom market. The penetration rate is a ratio of subscriptions or connected devices to population, rather than a measure showing that more than one entire phone exists for every Kenyan.

Machine-to-machine connections add another layer. M2M subscriptions reached 2.22 million in June, up 11% from 2.00 million in March, reflecting SIMs used in connected equipment and automated systems rather than conventional consumer handsets.

Taken together, the numbers describe a mobile economy that is expanding on several fronts. There are more SIM connections, more smartphones, more broadband subscriptions and more connected machines, while feature phones and 3G usage continue to decline.

The consumer device is becoming the centre of the mobile economy

The most important change in the latest numbers is therefore the composition of Kenya’s mobile base. Smartphones have moved from being the majority of connected handsets to representing nearly two-thirds of them, while feature phones continue to lose ground.

That transition gives mobile broadband a larger addressable device base and makes the smartphone increasingly central to how Kenyans access digital services. Financial services, entertainment, commerce, social platforms, work applications and other internet services all depend on the capabilities that these devices provide.

The 88 million SIM milestone is still significant, but it says less about the consumer market on its own than the combination of SIMs, smartphones and broadband subscriptions. Kenya now has a mobile network serving almost 88 million SIM connections alongside more than 52 million smartphones and nearly 55 million mobile broadband subscriptions.

The result is a market that is becoming more data-oriented without abandoning its older services. Calls remain heavily used, SMS still moves billions of messages, and multiple SIM ownership remains common, but the device base increasingly points toward a mobile economy built around internet-connected smartphones.

Real ESG impact doesn’t happen in panels alone, it happens in the rooms where financiers, operators, and policymakers actually align. Our GreenShift Forum 2026 cuts the noise, bringing together the people rewiring  Africa’s sustainability and energy frameworks for one focused day in Nairobi. Secure your seat.

Go to TECHTRENDSKE.co.ke for more tech and business news from the African continent and across the world.

Follow us on WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, and Facebook, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any future updates. Send tips to info@techtrendsmedia.co.ke