Telkom clients spend more on data than calls

Telkom Kenya’s new half-a-million customers — gained after rebranding early last year — spent more on data than phone calls.

The firm’s position in the Internet market grew as its market share rose to 7.3 per cent as of last September, from 6.2 per cent in June 2017, a rare positive trajectory for a company whose mobile data business has steadily declined in the past few years.

However, voice traffic numbers seemed impervious to the widening of Telkom Kenya’s subscription base.

During the quarter Telkom Kenya’s voice traffic declined 1.5 per cent to 589.8 million minutes while its market share was shaved 0.3 percentage points.

These figures suggest that the company’s new and existing customers prefer its data offerings rather than its voice packages.

Last June Telkom Kenya rebranded, dropping the Orange identity and bringing to the market new service packages with an eye on fresh customers.

The latest statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) show that rebranding has started bearing fruit as the company’s customer numbers grew 18.54 per cent to 3.4 million.

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The CA said that the rise “is attributed to customer acquisition campaign carried out by the service provider following its rebranding in mid-year.”

Of the tier one mobile operators, Telkom Kenya was the only one that recorded significant growth in its subscriptions and data customer numbers during the quarter.

Airtel’s subscription market share fell from 15.3 per cent to 14.9 per cent during the quarter. Safaricom’s market share by mobile subscriptions fell from 72.6 per cent to 71.9 per cent.

Safaricom’s #ticker:SCOM market share in the data market declined to 76 from 77.1 per cent, while Airtel recorded a marginal increase to 15.7 from 15.6 per cent.

Following its rebranding, Telkom Kenya focused its energy on the data segment of the market, launching 4G services and introducing cheap data packages for subscribers.