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Safaricom’s dominance of the voice market came down to a two-year low. At the same time, the share of Airtel rose to a record high, leading to heightened competition between the telcos, according to the data released by the Communications Authority (CA)
Safaricom’s dominance of the voice market came down to a two-year low. At the same time, the share of Airtel rose to a record high, leading to heightened competition between the telcos, according to the data released by the Communications Authority (CA).
Safaricom’s dominance of the market fell to 64.2 percent in the three months that ended September, a 1.9 percentage point drop from a similar period that ended June. In the meantime, Airtel’s share grew to a record high of 33.7 percent, registering a rise of 1.6 percentage points for the same period. Airtel cut the tariffs to poach customers from Safaricom’s dominance. Safaricom’s share of voice was lower than the latest figure at 62.1 percent in June 2020.
The slide in Safaricom’s market share was on account of a drop in talk-time across all the mobile networks. It fell to 18.9 billion minutes from 19.2 billion minutes in the three months that ended June riding on the back of lower tariff offered by Airtel for internet calls.
Airtel’s better performance is also attributed to the increased preference and uptake of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, especially in urban areas where fast Internet connections are readily available.
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In the meantime, Airtel Africa has signalled that it expects its Kenyan unit to return to profitability in the near term, availing the facility under the utilisation of deferred tax assets that can be derived from past losses from the Kenyan business. The firm had built up billions of shillings over the years from the tax credits to use in the future to lower its tax liability. The company started using the credits in the quarter that ended in June. By the end of the half-year to September, the cumulative amount utilised stood at US$42 million (Sh5.1 billion).
