Mobile users turn to texts to cut living costs

Mobile phone users in Kenya are cutting on calls, with many opting to text to make a in the face of the rising cost of living.

The latest Communications Authority quarterly statistic bulletin shows domestic mobile voice traffic on-net and off-net dropped in the first three months of the year while the use of text messages grew.

Last year, telcos were forced to review call rates upward after the government raised excise duty from 15 per cent to 20 per cent in the Finance Act, 2021.

Safaricom customers now pay Sh4.87 per minute for calls made between 8am and 10pm. They pay Sh2.50 for calls made between 10pm and 8am.

This was an average increase of Sh0.50 per minute.  

Telkom’s price for the Pay-As-You-Go Telkom-to-Telkom Voice increased to Sh2.78. Pay-As-You-Go Voice price for off-net calls rose to Sh4.30. 

Airtel Kenya on other hand raised call rates by Sh0.78 per minute from Sh2. 

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), The information and communication bill accounted for 7.8 per cent of the food basket in May, having increased by 2.4 per cent from the previous month. 

The cost of living has been on the rise in the past six months due to spiral effects of volatilities in the global market, led by supply glitches due to the ongoing Ukraine war. 

Last month, Kenya registered a 13-month high inflation of 7.1 per cent, with the Central Bank of Kenya warning that it will likely go beyond 7.5 per cent in the coming months. 

According to CA, domestic mobile voice traffic both on-net and off-net declined during the quarter under review by 7.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.

Besides the high cost of living, the regulator has attributed the drop in calls to the conclusion of various promotions that were running during the previous quarter.

The minutes of use per month per subscription dropped from 105.6 reported in Q2 to 98.3 minutes during the reference period. 

However, short messages sent per month per subscription increased from 49.7 to 55.9 messages.

Similarly, mobile to fixed traffic continued to dwindle owing to the declining number of fixed network subscriptions.

During the reference period, mobile users spent an average of 1.6 minutes on on-net calls and 1.0minute on off-net calls.

Airtel customers spent more time on a single on-net call averaging 2.8 minutes whereas customers of Telkom Kenya Limited recorded the highest number of net minutes per call at 1.5 minutes.

Domestic SMS traffic increased to 10.9 billion during the referenced period from 9.7 billion reported during the preceding quarter.

The growth is also partly attributed to the promotion ran by the operators during the quarter.

During the reference period, incoming international mobile voice traffic recorded a dip of 14.3 per cent whereas outgoing international mobile voice traffic grew by 3.8 per cent.

The average cost of making calls from Kenya to other African countries increased by up to Sh5 per minute last year, making it more expensive to conduct cross-border business and keep in touch.

Further, both incoming and out going international mobile SMS declined by 8.9 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.

The declines are also attributed to reduced activity following the end of the festive season.

Official data shows the cost of calls to Burundi grew the highest to Sh71.67 per minute from Sh66.67 in 2020 followed by calls to Ethiopia and South Africa that increased by Sh3 to Sh36.67 and Sh33.33 per minute respectively.

During the period, mobile penetration dropped by 2.5 percentage points, attributed to the review of the country’s population figures from 48.7 million to 49.4 million as per the Economic Survey 2022.

Mobile money subscriptions grew from 35.2 million recorded at the end of December 2021 to36.4 million subscriptions by end of March 2022 hence translating to a penetration rate of 73.8 per cent.

The total value of mobile phone transactions during the period hit Sh5.7 trillion, with Safaricom dominating with over 94 per cent. 

The number of smartphones and feature phones connected to mobile networks as at March 31 stood at 26.5 million and 33.6 million respectively.

Their respective penetration rates computed as a percentage of the total population were recorded at 54.6 per cent and 69.2 per cent respectively.

The total internet and broadband subscriptions stood at 46.5 million and 30.2 million respectively during the reference period.