Kenyan mobile phone subscriber numbers increased its penetration to 49.7% according to Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). The actual number of subscribers is 19.4 million from 19.3 as of the end of 2009.
Total revenues earned by the industry’s four players ( Safaricom, Orange, Yu and Zain) in 2009 grew by 16 percent to 84.2 billion shillings ($1.11 billion) against the previous year, but the average revenue per user fell approx 4.0% to 362.20 shillings from 376.56 shillings.
“This trend can be explained by among other factors, the reduction in the cost of mobile handsets as well as the low value of prepaid calling cards,” CCK said in a quarterly bulletin. Mobile data subscribers leapt over 400 percent to 1.98 million users from 398,190 in the year ago period. The regulator said the number of fixed lines declined by 1.5 percent from the previous year to 243,656 users.
