NAIROBI, KENYA: The number of Kenyans sending short messages through their mobile phones is on the decline, a new survey by the Communications Authority of Kenya shows.
The second-quarter survey shows a decline of 16.5 per cent in the total local SMS sent from mobile networks to 14.2 billion messages from 17.0 billion recorded in the preceding quarter.
CA links the drop to a reduction in SMS bundle usage with many customers preferring to take advantage of the available voice and data offers instead.
During the second quarter of the Financial Year 2020/21, the number of short messages sent per subscription per month dropped to 77.0 from 94.6 posted in the first quarter.
On the other hand, minutes of use per month per subscription rose to 106.8 from 101.2 registered in the preceding quarter.
“The drop in SMS sent per Subscription per month is attributed to a reduction in SMS bundle usage with many customers preferring to take advantage of the available voice and data offers instead, from the Safaricom@20 promotion."
International Mobile Traffic
During the period under review, international mobile voice minutes originating from East African Community countries declined significantly to 54.2 million from 79.9 million minutes posted in the preceding quarter.
The drop is mainly attributed to the conclusion of several international voice promotions offered by MTN Rwanda during the previous period. Total international incoming mobile voice minutes dropped by 21.4 per cent to 106.8 minutes.
On the contrary, international outgoing mobile voice minutes grew by 3.0 per cent to record 125.1 minutes during the review period.
Internet Services
As the end of the 2020, more and more services had moved to online, which has lead to an increase in consumption of the internet.
In addition, traffic growth has been fueled by more consumers viewing video content as a result of a rising number of internet-enabled phones as well as the availability of high-speed Internet in the country.
During the second quarter of Financial Year 2020/21, the total Internet subscriptions amounted to 44.4million subscriptions. These comprised 43.8 million wireless subscriptions and 572,982 fixed (wired) subscriptions.
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