Safaricom closer to surpassing Zuku fibre

Telecommunications firm Safaricom increased its share of the fixed internet market to 31.8 percent in three months to March, further shaking the dominance of Zuku parent company Wananchi Group whose market share dropped to 35.8 percent.

Latest data by the Communications Authority (CA) shows that this was a 1.9 percentage point growth or 16,867 new fixed data subscriptions for Safaricom from December as Wananchi Group’s dominance fell by 2.8 points in the same period.

Safaricom had 126,792 subscribers on its fixed data platform at end of March while Wananchi slightly increased to 143,957 from 141,021 subscriptions.

This is Safaricom’s seventh consecutive quarter on quarter growth in its fibre internet product, coming on the back of increased investments in linking homes to its fibre connections since February last year as subscribers increased countrywide.

Jamii Telecom came a distant third with a market share of 14 percent or 56,396 fixed internet subscribers, up from 51,082 at end of December last year.

CA data further shows that total fixed internet subscribers increased from December by 8.24 percent to hit 402,103 at end of March, underlining Kenyans’ increasing demand for internet as subscription on-demand services such as Showmax and Netflix grow and more people opt to work from home.

Safaricom launched home fibre optic internet services in February 2017 and surpassed more than 90,000 household connections by the end of the year. The telco says in its 2018 annual report that it increased its fibre network to more than 6,700km as it ate more into Zuku’s share of home internet lines.

“We believe that investing in our infrastructure will not only reinforce our competitive position, it also represents a compelling opportunity to accelerate our revenue growth” Safaricom said in its 2018 report.