The move followed a directive in 2018 by the industry regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), which at the time revealed that a forensic audit of Kenya’s mobile networks resulted in the switch-off of 14,373 Telkom subscribers.
The firm comes second after Airtel, which had wiped out 584,134 SIM cards with various anomalies, including irregular registrations that the regulator has blamed for aiding criminals to engage in fraud.
Safaricom did not switch-off any users on its network, according to the industry regulator.
Telkom Kenya lost an additional 26,112 subscribers through the switch-off of fraudulently registered SIM cards, bringing the total number of registered lines that were deactivated by the firm to 40,485 last year.
The move followed a directive in 2018 by the industry regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), which at the time revealed that a forensic audit of Kenya’s mobile networks resulted in the switch-off of 14,373 Telkom subscribers.
The firm comes second after Airtel, which had wiped out 584,134 SIM cards with various anomalies, including irregular registrations that the regulator has blamed for aiding criminals to engage in fraud.
Safaricom did not switch-off any users on its network, according to the industry regulator.
“We liaised with the operators and confirmed compliance. It was also noted that the operators then, had little or no control of agents or dealers, allowing them to register without the right procedures,” CA told the Business Daily in a statement.
The industry regulator further says it will undertake a forensic audit by the fourth quarter of the year to ensure that all suspect SIM cards are deactivated.
Telkom, however, shrugged off the deactivations to register a 6.2 percent growth in subscribers, rising from 4.08 million last September to 4.44 million last year.
The telco is the third-biggest player by market share, coming behind Safaricom and Airtel.
In total, Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom, Finserve and Mobile Pay share a total of 46.6 million subscribers. Telkom, which is majority-owned by Helios Investment, is set to merge with Airtel Kenya.
as part of efforts to strengthen their earnings position and take on market leader Safaricom.
Under the plans announced in February, Telkom will retain transfer its mobile operations, enterprise and carrier business to Airtel Kenya. It will however retain its outstanding debt.
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