The Expensive Nature of Safaricom’s Calling Rates Doesn’t Encourage Long Calls

Safaricom PLC is no doubt the largest telecom provider in the country. In the Jan-April period, Safaricom led with a 64.8 percent market share despite registering a slight decline.

However, the telco doesn’t win in all aspects. The latest Sector Statistics report from CAK notes that most people prefer using Airtel for calls.

In the period under review, Airtel Networks Limited subscribers recorded the highest duration of on-net minutes per call at 4.0 minutes, whereas Safaricom PLC recorded the least number of off-net minutes per call at 0.9.

The Authority attributed the large difference to the high calling rates charged by Safaricom both within and across networks.

Safaricom’s average minutes of use per call for on-net calls stood at 1.3, same as Airtel registered for off-net calls. Telkom Kenya is the second most preferred as with an average of 1.8 minutes per on-net call.

In general, Safaricom accounted for the most voice traffic with 65.7 percent market share down from 67.1 percent previously, a 2 percent decline. Airtel was number two with a 30.9 percent share. Airtel’s voice traffic market share increased by 1.7 percent from last quarter.

Notably, the company also managed to increase its active mobile subscriber count in the quarter while Safaricom and Telkom shed off a few percentage points.

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