Kenya: Telkom Kenya Reaps from Growth of Fixed Line Subscribers

By NewsfromAfrica 

NAIROBI--Even as the country’s telecoms industry stays focused on the GSM scene, Telkom Kenya continues to grow the number of its fixed line subscribers as indicated by the recently-released Communications Commission of Kenya’s statistics.

The latest Communications Commission of Kenya’s (CCK) Quarterly Sector Statistics Report for the second quarter of 2012/13 - which covers the period from October to December 2012- states that the total number of fixed lines subscribers grew marginally by 1.3 percent during the review period to 251,567 lines up from 248,300 recorded during the previous period.

The growth in the number of subscribers has further translated in increased traffic on the fixed network as well as revenues for Telkom Kenya.

“The total number of minutes recorded in the fixed line network grew by 20.3 percent during the period to reach 53 million minutes up from 44 million minutes recorded during the previous quarter. The growth was driven by intra-network traffic that grew by 45.2 percent during the period also as a result of increased fixed wireless subscriptions during the period,” states the report, adding that the overall total fixed line traffic recorded 4.2 percent growth compared to the same period of the previous year.

Telkom Kenya operates three networks – fixed line (physical) also known as Telkom Fixed; CDMA (Orange Wireless) as well as the GSM (Orange Mobile). The Telkom Fixed network – first constructed in the 1940s when the firm was called East African Postal Corporation (EAPC) – covers most of the country and currently contributes about 70 per cent of Telkom Kenya’s revenues.

The CDMA network operates on the “020” prefix and contributes about 25 per cent of the firm’s revenues while the GSM network – with about 2.5 million subscribers according to the CCK report – is responsible for the remaining 5 per cent of the firm’s overall revenues.    

According to the CCK report, the increase in the number of users was boosted by a 4.5 per cent growth in the number of fixed wireless subscribers during the period to reach 185,857 even though the fixed terrestrial subscribers continued to drop recording a decline of 6.6 percent from 70,390 lines recorded during the previous period to 65,710 lines during the period under review.