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Subscribers send all-time high 15.8 billion SMSs

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Texting Mobile phone users. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Short messaging service (SMS) volumes hit an all-time high of 15.8 billion sent in the quarter ended December.

The data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) showed a 29.1 per cent increase in the number of messages from 12.2 billion messages in the previous three months.

“As has been the norm, the trends of on-net and off-net local mobile SMS traffic remain similar with on-net SMS posting the highest volume as compared to off net SMS. The overall increase in the number of SMS sent could be attributed to increased activities during the quarter under review,” read the CA report.

According to the report, the number of SMS sent from Safaricom’s network increased by a sizeable margin to record 15 billion messages up from 11.5 billion messages posted during the previous quarter. Its SMS market share was registered at 95.1 per cent during the quarter compared to last quarter’s share of 94.4 per cent, representing an increase of 0.7 percentage points during the quarter,” further stated the report.

The SMS segment has been recovering over the past year with the number nearly doubling from 8.1 billion SMS from a similar quarter the previous year.

As at March 2016, Safaricom recorded an increase in messaging revenue to Sh17.3 billion due to an increase in the number of SMS users benefiting from SMS bundles and targeted promotions.

In the three months to December, Airtel recorded an increase from 617.8 million messages sent during the last quarter to 693.3 million messages. Telkom Kenya had 75 million messages from 63 million messages while Finserve Africa saw an increase of 1.8 per cent to register 9.5 million messages.

International messages however showed an inverse trend with the number of incoming and outgoing SMS dropping by 4.2 per cent and 16.7 per cent respectively.

According to CA, the volume of international incoming mobile SMS has continued on a downward trajectory with the quarter under review recording a drop to stand at 9.2 million messages down from 9.6 million.