Continued woes see Telkom lose over 1 million customers in a year
By Alfred Onyango |
This is from the 2.5 million recorded in the same period last year, representing a 41 per cent dip.
The continued woes facing Kenya's third largest telco, Telkom Kenya, has seen it lose more than one million customers in the 12-month period to June 2024, who have arguably ditched the operator for other options.
Data by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows the telco shed about 1.1 million users to remain with 1.48 million active subscriptions as of June this year.
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This is from the 2.5 million recorded in the same period last year, representing a 41 per cent dip.
Active subscriptions refer to the SIM Cards used at least once in the last three months and have generated revenue through making or receiving a call or carrying out a non-voice activity such as sending or receiving an SMS, accessing the internet, airtime top-up, transacting using mobile money and mobile banking.
On the other hand, its competitors Safaricom and Airtel, recorded growths in their customer base, with the data showing the telcos had 45.1 and 20.3 million active customers, respectively as of the close of June 2024.
Compared to the same period last year, the aforementioned telcos had 43.9 and 18.1 million customers, representing 2.7 and 12 per cent growth, respectively.
Generally, the telecommunications sub-sector in the country experienced significant growth during the 2023/24 Financial Year, attributed to expansion of telecom infrastructure and increased adoption of smartphone services.
The uptake started picking up during the subsequent quarters resulting in 68.9 million active mobile subscriptions, translating to a penetration rate of 133.7 per cent by the end of June 2024.
This is compared to the 66.2 million active mobile subscriptions with a penetration rate of 131.3 percent in 2023.
However, there was a decline in the uptake of mobile SIM cards in the period ending 31st December 2023, attributed to high churn vis-à-vis acquisitions, especially across the Telkom Kenya Limited network.
The churn rate, also known as the rate of attrition or customer churn, refers to the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity.
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