The uptake of Starlink satellite internet company’s services in Kenya for the three months ending December 2024 slowed compared to the preceding quarter, months after the internet company doubled its market share in the country.
A new report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) indicates that Starlink’s internet services in Kenya slowed by 72.9% between October and December 2024.
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The report shows that during the period, the American firm only gained 2,360 new users compared to 8, 723 new subscribers onboarded during the previous quarter that ended in September.
This coincided with a time when Starlink, owned by Tesla owner and US billionaire Elon Musk, suspended sales in five counties after concerns of stretched capacity.
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Starlink uptake in Kenya slows
In November, the firm announced that it had suspended new subscriptions in Kenya’s capital and the neighboring counties of Kajiado, Machakos, Kiambu and Murang’a, citing a network overload due to soaring demand that had stretched its capacity.
“Nairobi and neighboring areas are currently at network capacity. This means that too many users are trying to access the Starlink service within Nairobi and there isn’t enough bandwidth to support additional residential or roaming customers at this time,” Starlink said.
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“No roaming plans are available in Kenya at this time. Starlink is working to restore service in the disrupted areas and a notification will be sent once the residential plan is back.”
Despite the slow uptake of Starlink services in the last quarter of 2024, the report by CA revealed that utilized satellite capacity increased by 74.9% in the same period in what the authority links to the growing uptake of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite internet services in the country offered by the American firm.
The number of satellite data subscribers rose by 13.9%, from 17, 042 in September to 19, 403 in December 2024.
Starlink held 1.1% share of the fixed data market as of the close of September 2024, which was up from 0.5% at the end of June of the same year.
This is marginal compared to other players such as Telecommunications giant Safaricom (36.1%), Jamii Telecom (23.6%), and Wananchi Group (15.4%).
The American firm began commercial operations in Kenya in July 2023. At the time, Starlink charged Ksh89,000 for the standard terminal kit and a Ksh6,500 monthly subscription.
Also Read: Starlink Doubles Kenyan Market Share in 3 Months After Lowering Prices- Report
Since then, prices have gone down, with the terminals now costing Ksh45,500, and monthly data packages as low as Ksh1,300 for residential packages.
CA report
On the other hand, the CA report revealed that the telecommunications sector recorded strong growth in the last quarter of 2024 driven by increased mobile and internet activity during the festive season.
According to the data, mobile money usage went up with SIM subscriptions rising to over 71 million while mobile money users jumped to 42.3 million.
Safaricom maintained its lion share of the market at 65.2% a figure that translates to an 82% penetration rate.
Also Read: Safaricom Offers Free Ksh500 to Internet Users Amid Starlink Competition
The rise of 71.44 million in active SIM subscriptions pushed penetration to 138.5%.
CA said that the demand for high-speed internet driven by streaming, remote work and online learning fuels the uptake of 4G and 5G services.
This saw mobile data subscriptions expand by 3.2% to 56.1 million.
Smartphone penetration hit 80.5% while feature phones declined to 59.3%, with the shift attributed to increased mobile broadband coverage now at 97% of the population and the affordability of smartphones.
Voice traffic increased by 4.6% to 27.4 billion minutes while SMS volumes rose by 3.3% to 14.1 billion messages.
Safaricom maintained its dominance at 65.2% followed by Airtel at 30.1%.
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