Safaricom has emerged as the leading mobile network operator in the country beating its rival Airtel between April and June this year. This is according to figures provided by the Communications Authority (CA) quarterly statistical bulletin on gross customer subscriptions.
Over the period, Safaricom had increased its subscriber count from 31.8 million in March to 33.1 million. This propelled Safaricom to the top with 63.5 per cent share of the market.
Airtel, on the other hand, has regressed by shedding off 479,419 subscribers within the same period.
Telkom nonetheless experienced a 4.5 per cent customer growth rate within the three months and reached 4.2 million subscribers.
The combined market for Telkom and Airtel in the new statistics by the Communications Authority falls at 32.7 per cent. When it comes to voice traffic, Telkom and Airtel combined had 43 per cent against Safaricom's 56.8 per cent.
The statistics come at a time when Airtel and Telkom are involved in an ongoing merger deal.
The merging of Telkom and Airtel which was first announced last year would have increased the competition against Safaricom. According to a report by The Standard Media that was published early this month, the merger deal faced opposition from Parliament, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), former Telkom Kenya employees and Safaricom which filed their case with Communication Authority of Kenya (CA).