Industry News

The telecommunications sector experienced significant growth in the first quarter of financial year 2024/2025, with an increase in broadband subscriptions, mobile SIM, smartphone use, and mobile money, indicating continued industry responsiveness to customer needs.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA)’s quarterly Sector Statistics report covering July-September 2024, which was released today shows whereas there was a slight decline in 3G broadband subscriptions and data consumption, but an increase in 4G and 5G technology adoption.

The country is poised for significant advancements in both 4G and 5G uptake which is driven by the continued investments and increased consumer demand for high-speed connectivity.

– reads part of the report

Mobile data subscriptions grew to a record 53.7 million by the end of the quarter, with 4G constituting 58.1 percent. The adoption of 4G and 5G technologies has continued to grow, mainly driven by the growing demand for high-speed Internet for activities such as streaming, online learning, remote work, and e-commerce.

The number of active mobile (SIM) subscriptions grew by 1.6 percent to 70.0 million by the end of September 2024 from 68.9 million recorded in the previous quarter representing a penetration rate of 135.8 percent Subscriptions to mobile money services increased from 39.8 million to 40.6 million, translating to a penetration rate of 78.9 percent during the reference period.

The total number of mobile phone devices connected to mobile networks was 68.1 million, representing a penetration rate of 131.5 percent. At 37.4 million devices, smartphones take the lead with a penetration rate of 72.6 percent, while the 30.7 million feature phones accounted for account for 59.6 per cent penetration rate.

The volume of outgoing domestic voice traffic grew by 5.5 percent from 24.9 billion to 26.2 billion. “This growth is attributed to service providers’ special offers and promotions during the review period, where consumers could pay as low as KES 20 for 10 minutes of all-net calls, 20 SMS, and 50 MB of data. Similarly, domestic SMS traffic grew to 13.7 billion messages, from 13.5 billion reported last quarter,” the report noted.

The total average minutes per on-net call remained unchanged at 1.8 minutes, whereas off-net calls grew to 1.3 minutes from 1.2 minutes recorded last quarter. Airtel Networks Limited customers spent more time on a single on-net call, averaging 2.8 minutes, whereas Safaricom PLC and Jamii Telecommunications Ltd consumers spent more time on off-net calls, averaging 1.4 minutes. Incoming international mobile voice minutes grew by 11.9 percent to 134.2 million during the reference period. On the other hand, outgoing international mobile voice traffic dropped from 175.7 million to 175.3 million. International incoming mobile SMS rose to 8.4 million whereas outgoing mobile SMS declined to post 2.6 million.

The total data/Internet subscriptions rose by 4.9 percent to 1.57 million from 1.50 million recorded as of June 30th, 2024. Satellite Internet subscriptions recorded a significant increase of 104.7 percent during the reference period, attributed to a customer acquisition campaign run by Starlink Internet Services Kenya that introduced an option to rent satellite equipment at a reduced cost.

In terms of market share in subscriptions for the mobile services, Safaricom PLC leads in mobile (SIM) subscriptions with 65.7 per cent, followed by Airtel Network Kenya Limited with 29.6 per cent, Finserve (Equitel) Ltd has 2.1 per cent while Telkom Kenya has 1.7 per cent. In mobile broadband subscriptions, Safaricom PLC has 63.1 per cent market share, followed by Airtel Networks Kenya Ltd at 32.6 per cent. Telkom Kenya has 1.7 per cent, Finserve (Equitel) Ltd 1.6 per cent while Jamii Telecommunications Ltd has one (1) per cent.

Safaricom PLC has 92.3 per cent market share in mobile money services, followed by Airtel Money at 7.6 per cent, while T-Kash has less than one (1) per cent.

The total available/lit international Internet bandwidth capacity in the country increased from 22,154.438 Gbps recorded in the previous quarter, to 24,195.320 Gbps. Further, utilized undersea bandwidth rose by 1.1 percent to15,287.222 Gbps out of which 12,333.402 Gbps was used in the country and 2,953.820 Gbps transited to other countries. Utilized satellite Internet capacity grew significantly by 152.8 percent to reach 2,124.438 Gbps.

The total number of users registered to .KE domains dropped by 0.1 percent to 106,722. During the quarter, total cyber threat events detected by the National KE-CIRT/CC stood at 657.8 million with 9.6 million advisories issued during the period.

Source: extensia.tech

Open-access fibre infrastructure and connectivity provider Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has invested more than R800 million to upgrade and future-proof its national fibre network.

Part of the Maziv group, DFA’s network provides connectivity and backhaul for mobile operators, data centres, Internet service providers, and public sector institutions.

“We have improved the average number of new circuits delivered from 800 to 1,500 per month,” says Andreas Uys, chief technology officer at Maziv.

“In one month, we delivered nearly 2,000 new connections — a new record for us. We’re also enabling higher line speeds and increasing available capacity to meet the changing needs of our customers.”

Uys added that the operator is focused on reducing delivery times while maintaining high-quality service.

“Our target this year is to deliver up to 2,500 connections per month,” he said.

“We could potentially deliver fibre connectivity to buildings already on our network within 14 days, and to non-connected buildings within 55 days.”

DFA noted that the latest investment follows its R400-million Dry Underground Distribution Cabinet network enhancement project launched in 2023.

That project focused on stabilising and future-proofing DFA’s network infrastructure. DFA notes that the investment is already delivering measurable results.

This includes a 40% improvement in new circuit delivery times and a 100% improvement in the meantime to repair (MTTR), where the new architecture is operational.

According to Maziv’s chief operating officer, Dewald Booysen, DFA has been focused on improving its customer experience since late 2022, when it received complaints about network instability and slower service delivery.

“We’ve worked tirelessly to address these challenges,” he said. “Our network upgrades have vastly improved resilience and diversity in the network.”

“We still maintained a national uptime of over 99.5%, even during high-incident periods. Currently, we’re performing at an exceptional 99.99% uptime.”

Booysen also noted the improvement in MTTR. He said the 100% improvement had come despite challenges like third-party construction damage, vandalism, copper theft, severe whether, and other environmental factors more than doubling in the past two years.

“We are seeing consistent and predictable improvements month on month,” said Booysen.

He added that DFA’s service challenges were primarily in Gauteng, not the entire country.

“Of the 15,000 kilometres of fibre, about 40% of that infrastructure is in Gauteng, where we experienced the bulk of our challenges, which is just under 5,000 kilometres of fibre,” he said.

Source: extensia.tech

The global smartphone market rebounded in 2024 with Apple leading shipments, marking the first significant growth after two years of decline, Canalys research showed.

The analyst house found that global smartphone shipments increased by 7 per cent year-on-year to 1.2 billion units, with Apple shipping a total 225.9 million iPhones, giving it top spot for the second consecutive year.

Strong sales in North America and Europe coupled with expansion into new markets helped the vendor offset a downturn in China sales.

In second place, Samsung shipped 222.9 million units, while Xiaomi followed with a 15 per cent increase to 168.6 million units.

Transsion claimed fourth spot for the first time with a 15 per cent increase and Oppo rounded out the top five with 3 per cent growth.

Emerging trends
Apple and Samsung’s strong performance was driven by a growing demand for premium smartphone models in the high-end segment, according to Sanyam Chaurasia, senior analyst at Canalys.

Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max registered an 11 per cent increase in shipments compared to sales of the 15 Pro and Pro Max models in 2023. Meanwhile, Samsung saw its best S-series sales since 2019.

Consumers increasingly chose premium models of flagship devices, “helped by vendors’ clearer differentiating models within their flagship series in an already price-inelastic segment”, he explained.

Runar Bjorhovde, analyst at Canalys, said the 2024 market recovery marks “the highest annual global shipment volume post-pandemic”, as consumers replaced pandemic-era smartphones and vendors capitalised on a mass-market demand surge with affordable products. However, he countered that prioritising volume also led to margin pressure for many vendors.

Bjorhovde added that vendors should brace for a challenging 2025. While emerging markets drove growth in 2024, their slowing expansion and factors including economic instability and potential US tariffs add uncertainty to the market. “Finding the right balance between short-term performance, inventory management and long-term investments will be key for vendors to succeed,” he said.

Source: Mobile World Live

OpenAI chief Sam Altman inked a deal with tech giant Kakao in South Korea on Tuesday as the US firm seeks new alliances after Chinese rival DeepSeek shook the global AI industry.

Kakao, which owns an online bank, South Korea’s largest taxi-hailing app and KakaoTalk, announced a partnership allowing them to use ChatGPT for its new artificial intelligence services, joining a global alliance led by OpenAI amid intensifying competition in the sector.

Altman’s company is part of the Stargate drive announced by US President Donald Trump to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the United States.

But AI newcomer DeepSeek has sent Silicon Valley into a frenzy, with some calling its high performance and supposed low cost a wake-up call for US developers.

“We’re excited to bring advanced AI to Kakao’s millions of users and work together to integrate our technology into services that transform how Kakao’s users communicate and connect,” said Altman.

“Kakao has a deep understanding of how technology can enrich everyday lives,” he added.

Kakao’s CEO Shina Chung said the company was “thrilled” to establish a “strategic collaboration” with OpenAI.

Also on Altman’s agenda were meetings with two top South Korean chipmakers, Samsung and SK hynix, both key suppliers of advanced semiconductors used in AI servers.

Altman met with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung in Seoul to discuss collaboration on AI memory chips, including high bandwidth memory (HBM), and AI services.

He is also expected to meet with Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong later Tuesday.

Jaejune Kim, executive vice president of Samsung’s memory business, said last week that the company was “monitoring industry trends considering various scenarios” when asked about DeepSeek.

DeepSeek’s performance has sparked a wave of accusations that it has reverse-engineered the capabilities of leading US technology, such as the AI powering ChatGPT.

OpenAI warned last week that Chinese companies are actively attempting to replicate its advanced AI models, prompting closer cooperation with US authorities.

OpenAI says rivals are using a process known as distillation in which developers creating smaller models learn from larger ones by copying their behaviour and decision-making patterns — similar to a student learning from a teacher.

The company is itself facing multiple accusations of intellectual property violations, primarily related to the use of copyrighted materials in training its generative AI models.

Source: www.msn.com

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has clarified that the previous SIM card registration exercise was not useless but rather incomplete.

His remarks come after the Minister-Designate for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Sam Nartey George, announced plans for a new SIM card re-registration process to correct issues from the previous exercise.

In 2022, the government required SIM cardholders to link their numbers with their Ghana Cards. However, the process was marred by inefficiencies, long queues, and SIM blockages for those who failed to comply.

During his vetting, Sam George criticized these challenges and pledged to introduce a more seamless system that integrates directly with the National Identification Authority (NIA) database.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Monday, February 3, Ashigbey explained:

“I wouldn’t say it is useless. I would say it was incomplete. The thing about it is the fact that the biometric data that was collected was not reading properly.”

He pointed out that the fingerprint data was not captured as accurately as the NIA’s system, stressing the importance of using the NIA database as the “single point of truth.”

“What we should have done was use the NIA database to complete the cycle,” Ashigbey noted.

He explained that while the initial phase of SIM registration verified data against the NIA database, the second phase—biometric verification—was flawed.

“We do the liveliness test, we do the likeliness test, we collect the biometric data, but we don’t compare it with the single point of truth, which is the NIA database,” he stated.

Ashigbey emphasized the need to correct this gap to ensure the new registration process is comprehensive and effective.

Source: Citi Newsroom

Telecel Ghana is actively engaging with stakeholders to promote fair competition and innovation within the country’s telecommunications industry. As one of the key players in the sector, Telecel is committed to fostering a balanced regulatory environment that benefits both businesses and consumers.

The company’s efforts come at a time when the telecom landscape in Ghana is evolving rapidly, with increasing demand for reliable and affordable services. Telecel’s push for equitable policies highlights its dedication to ensuring that all market participants can thrive, ultimately driving growth and improving service quality for Ghanaians.

In a recent development, Telecel has initiated constructive discussions with the newly appointed Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Rev. Ing. Edmund Fianko led by Telecel’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Mohamad Ghaddar.

This engagement underscores Telecel’s commitment to collaborating with regulators to address industry challenges and explore opportunities for growth. The dialogue aims to strengthen the relationship between the private sector and regulatory bodies, fostering a more transparent and cooperative ecosystem.

By working closely with the NCA and other industry partners, Telecel is optimistic about the future of Ghana’s telecom sector. The company believes that such collaborations will pave the way for innovative solutions, enhanced service delivery, and a more inclusive digital economy.

As the telecom industry continues to evolve, Telecel remains focused on its mission to contribute positively to Ghana’s digital transformation journey, ensuring that all stakeholders benefit from a fair and thriving market.

Source: News Ghana

Airtel Zambia experienced a new network outage over the weekend, enraging subscribers who were unable to access services.

Airtel users were left in the dark on Sunday due to the outage.The outage impacted online taxi services, mobile money transfers, and betting platforms.

While the mobile operator claimed that the outage only affected internet services, customers reported that they were unable to make calls or use their mobile money services.

Late afternoon, Airtel announced that services had been restored, and the telco’s communications office apologised to customers.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience during this time,” said Airtel.

However, by late Sunday, there were complaints across the country that network problems continued.

In several places, subscribers expressed worry that their data and airtime had been depleted following the restoration.

Source: extensia.tech