NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, August 17, 2015

Airtel Kenya is engaged in a mighty battle against Safaricom for Kenya’s growing mobile market. The telecom company is struggling to put a dent in Safaricom’s dominance, but they are getting left behind.

According to new industry data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK), Airtel, part of India’s Bharti Airtel, the third largest mobile carrier in the world, lost 7.8% of its subscribers in the first quarter of this year, compared with the previous quarter, while its rival Safaricom, partly owned by the UK’s Vodafone, saw a 2.7% increase.

Overall, the market is still seeing incredible growth. Mobile subscriptions in Kenya grew to nearly 35 million users, a 3.6% increase from the last quarter.