Kenya’s active 5G subscribers surged nearly 20% in the three months to September, reaching 1.5 million, as the country’s two main mobile operators stepped up network rollouts and marketing in urban centres, official data showed on Monday.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) said the number of users with 5G-capable devices consistently connected to the network rose 19.96% from 1.2 million in June, marking the fastest quarterly growth since the technology was launched.
The gain far exceeded the 5.4% increase recorded in the April-June period and underscores accelerating adoption of the ultra-fast mobile broadband standard.
Operators drive expansion
Market leader Safaricom, which switched on commercial 5G services in October 2022, and rival Airtel Kenya have led the charge with aggressive site deployments targeting high-traffic cities including Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
Safaricom has expanded its 5G footprint to more than 1,700 sites across all 47 counties, while Airtel has upgraded hundreds of locations and laid over 1,000 km of fibre backbone in recent months.
Cost and coverage remain hurdles
Despite the rapid uptake among early adopters, high smartphone prices and premium data tariffs continue to limit 5G to wealthier urban customers, regulators and industry officials say.
The CA noted that 5G users consumed an average of 40 gigabytes per month — almost three times the 14.1 GB used by 4G subscribers — highlighting the technology’s appeal to heavy data consumers.
Wider mobile trends
Kenya’s overall mobile data subscriptions grew 2.9% to 60.2 million in the quarter, with 78.3% now on broadband connections.
Fourth-generation (4G) remains dominant with 39.98 million users, up 7.5% from June, while 3G subscriptions fell 22.8% to 5.7 million as customers migrated to faster networks. Second-generation (2G) connections edged up 2.5% to 13.1 million.
Total mobile broadband traffic rose 12.8% to 674,240 terabytes, pushing average monthly consumption per subscriber to 14.3 GB.
Outlook
Analysts expect further 5G growth as Safaricom and Airtel extend coverage to secondary towns and introduce cheaper fixed-wireless home plans to compete with satellite providers such as Starlink.
Safaricom has pledged to make all its sites 5G-ready by 2029, while Airtel continues to add hundreds of new locations each quarter.
“Mobile data remains the primary engine of internet access in Kenya and a key driver of socioeconomic development,” the CA said in its report.
