Airtel has refuted claims that it plans to exit the Kenyan market. Last week, reports emerged that the telco was likely to call it quits.
In a statement, Airtel Kenya CEO Prasanta Das maintains that the company remains committed to delivering quality and value for money products and services to all its customers in Kenya.
“Contrary to false online reports, Airtel is not leaving the Kenyan market. We remain committed to delivering quality and value for money products and services to all our customers whilst ensuring effective, uninterrupted communication is achieved across the entire country,‘’ he said.
‘’We continue to significantly invest in the enhancement of our network and distribution across Kenya. We are now rolling out approximately 600 new sites to expand our network using the ultra-fast 4G technology across the country. ‘’ Prasanta added.
In addition, across key cities, Airtel Kenya says it has upgraded its network to be 5G ready. This significant expansion and upgrade it says will improve coverage as well as customer experience in both urban and rural areas.
Airtel Kenya has been working with Nokia and Ericsson to upgrade its existing sites to be ready for 5G since last year. In October, the telco penned a deal with Ericsson, a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications firm, to enhance and prepare its 4G network for 5G. A month later, it inked a deal with Finnish telco equipment maker Nokia to boost its 4G network’s quality and future-proof the network for 5G in Nairobi.
‘’Our investment in offering quality customer service and positively impacting our communities remains at the core of our business strategy.” he added.
Airtel Kenya currently has 16.8 million subscribers, translating to a market share of 27.2 per cent according to the latest industry figures (for the period covering October to December 2020) from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). The telco is ranked second after Safaricom which has 39.069 million subscribers (or 63.6 market share) while Telkom Kenya has slightly over 3.8 million subscribers (or 6.2 per cent of the market).
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