Mobile phone the new driver of Internet access

Government services offered online and growing mobile phone access will be the key drivers of mass internet adoption in the country, say industry experts and a national survey.

Statistics from the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) indicate that the country has 3.5 million Internet users, but data shows this figure could increase to 10 million users in the next two years, driven by mobile Internet.

These projections are backed by new findings from market research company Synovate, which shows that while Internet usage by social economic groups currently shows wide disparities, it portends remarkably strong growth throughout the country, largely driven by phone-based access.

Access to the Internet on mobile phone is growing at the expense of the public access route which is driving rural Internet penetration and usage, compared to urban areas.

Full membership

“Mobile phone looks set to be the new driver of Internet access as opposed to computers, thus the form of the hardware (mobile phone) is critical to the success of higher Internet penetration. This makes access to a mobile phone the key to full membership of the future society,” reads part of the Synovate report.

Phone based communication has overtaken face-to-face contact as a preferred mode of communication.

Because word of mouth spreads more over the phone than in face-to -face meetings, Internet users display a lower desire for the latter across every social category compared to non-users

Daily and weekly Internet usage has more than doubled in the last two years while monthly usage grew by 80 per cent, making it the fastest growing media, now with more than 3.5 million monthly users.

If the weekly Internet use is broken down on an urban versus rural basis, urban use grew from 22 per cent of respondents in 2007 to 30 per cent in 2009.

Rural use grew from four per cent to nine per cent over the same period.

The five top uses of the Internet range between 40-50 per cent of the sample users and were in descending order: entertainment; games and music; social networking and instant messaging; e-mails; general surfing and job search.

Apart from the social networks such as Facebook and YouTube and other sites such as BBC, Safaricom, CNN and the Nation which were identified as the most visited , another key driver is government services now offered via web based applications and can be assessed both through personal computers or mobile.

Some of these are accessing both the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results.

Others services are monitoring passport process online and applying for the Personal Identification Number (PIN) online.