Safaricom announced on Monday that its 5G network is now available in all 47 counties in Kenya, which it claims makes it the biggest 5G operator in the country, although the network still only covers just 14% of the population.
Safaricom said it has now deployed 1,114 5G sites covering 102 towns across the country since the service first launched in October 2022.
For comparison, its main rival Airtel Kenya – which launched 5G services in mid-2023 – said in June 2024 its 5G network has over 690 sites covering 39 counties and 285 wards. Airtel has said it intends to deploy 1,690 5G sites by the end of this year.
Safaricom said that there over 780,000 active 5G smartphones on its network, as well as over 11,000 enterprise customers using 5G. The telco has been heavily promoting 5G as a digitization play for enterprises, with solutions on offer including IoT, cybersecurity, cloud and payments.
“We believe that the benefits of 5G will be a key catalyst in leapfrogging other innovations, industries as well as Kenya’s digital economy,’ said Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa in a statement.
Despite the progress, 5G usage in Kenya remains relatively low, not least because less than 15% of the population lives in range of a 5G tower.
According to the latest available stats from the Communications Authority of Kenya, there were around 68 million mobile subscriptions as of March 31, 2024, which works out to a penetration rate of almost 121%.
There were also 51.2 million mobile data subscribers (91.1% penetration). However, only 635, 716 of those were 5G subscribers. The rest were 4G, 3G and 2G, with 4G the biggest draw at 27.5 million subscribers. (2G is the second biggest at 14 million subscribers.)
Even so, Safaricom’s claims of 780,000 active 5G subscriptions indicates that 5G uptake continues to grow.
The Communications Authority doesn’t break down 5G subscriptions by operator, but Safaricom is by far the biggest mobile broadband player with 63.7% of the market, while Airtel is a distant second with 31.2%.
Safaricom had 44.6 million mobile subscribers as of March 31, while Airtel had 19.3 million. Kenya’s other three mobile operators – Telkom Kenya, Equitel and Jamii – account for the remaining 3.5 million subscribers in the market.
Equitel – which is the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) of fintech company Finserve – entered the 5G race in February 2024 using Airtel’s network.
