Synopsis
A price war has characterised Kenya’s mobile communications market since 2008, following the market entry of the third and fourth network, Econet Wireless Kenya (in which India’s Essar acquired a stake), and Telkom Kenya under the Orange brand with its new majority shareholder, France Telecom. Subscriber growth is now forecast to slow gradually over the coming years, and rapidly falling ARPU levels have driven one of the incumbents, Zain (which was subsequently acquired by Bharti Airtel), deeper into negative earnings, leaving only the market leader, Safaricom, with a net profit, although reduced. Financial performance has improved again in the 2010/11 financial year.
The operators are developing new revenue streams from third-generation broadband and mobile banking services. The leading operator has begun LTE trials. With market penetration rates in Kenya’s broadband and traditional banking sector still very low, the mobile networks have an opportunity to relive the phenomenal growth rates seen in the voice sector in recent years.
This report contains an overview and analysis of Kenya’s mobile market, profiles of the major players, relevant statistics, analysis, and subscriber forecasts for 2013 and 2016.
