The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has released a report that indicates Safaricom is losing voice callers as its competitor Airtel gains.
The telecommunication giant has ceded the largest share of voice callers dropping from 80 per cent share recorded in 2017 to 56.8 per cent currently.
"Airtel Networks recorded the highest number of minutes per on-net call at 3.5 minutes, whereas Mobile Pay recorded the highest off-net minutes per call at two minutes. Safaricom recorded the least average number of minutes per call for both on-net and off-net at 1.2 and 0.6 minutes respectively," Standard quotes a Sector Quarterly Statistics Report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) for the three months to June 2019.
On average, local voice calls stood at 1.6 minutes per on-net call and 0.9 per off-net call.
There was also a reduction of Safaricom voice calls in the quarter under review compared to the previous quarter. This has been attributed to a shift from calling to Internet-based communication platforms and using text messages.
"During the quarter under review, the volume of local voice traffic originating from Safaricom stood at 9.19 billion, down from 9.8 billion minutes registered during the previous quarter,” the report states.
However, the loss might not impact Safaricom's annual net profit as the firm continues to post improved returns despite reduced voice minutes.