Companies

Airtel loses 0.5m subscribers in SIM cards switch-off

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Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssefi (left) and marketing manager Levi Nyakundi at a past event: The telco was the only one to shed value in the first quarter. PHOTO | FILE

Airtel has emerged as the biggest victim of the recent order for switch-off of unregistered SIM cards, having lost half a million subscribers and shedding market share even as market leader Safaricom gained marginally.

The latest industry data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that Airtel had 6.7 million customers as of March, a 7.1 per cent drop from its December figures when the switch-off was effected.

The switch-off, intended to clear the system of persons who use unregistered SIM cards to defraud people and commit other crimes, has seen Airtel shed 1.7 percentage points in market share to 17.5 per cent, becoming the only telecoms operator to shed value in the first three month of 2016.

“In compliance with the new SIM card regulations, Airtel carried out a SIM barring exercise in mid-December 2015 which led to the disconnection of over 500,000 subscribers,” the CA said in its January-March 2016 industry report.

Safaricom closed the period with 25.16 million customers (up from 24.4 million in December) while its market share during this period grew by one percentage point to 65.6 per cent, keeping it ahead of the pack.

Third-placed Orange saw its subscribers grow 3.1 per cent to reach 4.8 million up from 4.6 million subscriptions recorded in the quarter to December with its market share remaining flat at 12.5 per cent.

Equity Bank’s mobile subsidiary, Equitel, gained about 276,190 new customers to close the period at 1.68 million while its market share improved by 0.7 per cent to 4.4 per cent.

Sema Mobile services, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) which was licensed and launched during the quarter, had insignificant numbers of 158 subscriptions.

“During the period, the mobile service sub-sector continued to demonstrate positive growth with 38.3 million subscriptions recorded up from 37.7 million subscriptions registered during the previous period,” the CA said.

“Subsequently, mobile penetration grew by 1.5 percentage points during the period under review to stand at 89.2 per cent up from 87.7 per cent recorded last quarter.”

Just before Christmas, the Authority switched off SIM cards whose registration details did not match those at the Integrated Population Registration System (IPS). 

Safaricom and Airtel had earlier requested earmarked subscribers to confirm their registration details.

This fresh deactivation came about after the CA revised its rules for SIM card registration defining the legal process for their deactivation and complementing the registration laws that were passed in 2013.

READ: CA to block unregistered telephone lines in 90 days

Shifts in mobile subscriber numbers among the leading operators impacted their voice traffic with Safaricom registering a 7.8 billion minutes on its network, raising its market share to 76.8 per cent from 72.1 per cent in December.

Airtel reported a decline of 13.9 per cent in total mobile voice traffic to register 1.4 billion minutes during the period under review with its market share shedding 2.3 percentage points to 14.5 per cent.

Orange shed about 249 million minutes from its network, a loss which saw it close the period with a voice market share of 8.3 per cent down from December’s 10.8 per cent.

Equitel customers spent 39.4 million minutes on their phones in the three months to March, representing a five-million improvement from the previous quarter.

“The minutes of use per subscriber per month was recorded at 93.2 minutes during the quarter under review up from 89.0 minutes recorded during the previous quarter,” the CA said.