Telkom Kenya and Airtel have recorded a 16% fall in mobile Internet subscribers after consumers grew uncertain over a proposed merger of the telcos, according to Gadgets Africa.
A report by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) reveals that there were only 38.85 million Internet subscribers as of March 2020 – this resulted in a decline from 46.46 million in the same period last year.
“The merger deal collapsed last month with Airtel Kenya and Telkom Kenya citing unacceptable conditions placed on the proposed amalgamation besides delays in receiving regulatory approvals,” reports Business Daily.
“The companies had entered into an agreement on February 8, 2019 to combine their mobile, enterprise and wholesale divisions, a proposed deal that led to uncertainties on the fate of Telkom Kenya subscribers.”
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Telkom has since revealed that it would ‘revamp’ it’s mobile offering in order to increase revenue after the deal collapsed.
The telco added that it would “enter the lucrative fibre internet to homes and offices banking on the COVID-19 interruptions that have ramped up the use of Internet as most people opt to work from home.”
Kenyan Telcos could Compensate Users for Network Outages
Safaricom, Telkom and Airtel Kenya have decided to compensate customers who experience interrupted services due to network outages.
This comes shortly after the CA issued new draft regulations “to compel telcos to either pay or offer credit equivalent of the time users are without voice, data and SMS services”.
These guidelines are said to be part of the Kenyan governments “effort to shield the millions of subscribers across the country from poor services related to network outages which include lack of internet connections”.
This is something that is expected to push telcos to step-up the quality of their services.
