Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.

Kenya's 5G subscribers continue to increase after the country's leading telco, Safaricom, launched the service in October 2022.

According to the Communications Authority's (CA) fourth-quarter sector statistics report for the financial year 2023/2024, Kenya now has 739, 020 5G mobile customers.

However, this is significantly lower than the current 29,385, 815 4G mobile customers.

The data covers the period from April 1st to June 30th, 2024.

During the mentioned period, CA says mobile data remained the primary driver of internet adoption in the country, accounting for 97.2 percent of total data subscribers.

‘’Uptake of 4G and 5G services continued to grow following the expansion of these networks coupled with increased consumer preferences for high-speed internet’’ CA says in the report.

As of this month, Safaricom had become the largest 5G network operator in Kenya with over 1000 sites spread across all the 47 counties, growing the 5G footprint to 14% of the population.

In addition to the growing network, Safaricom says it now has over 11,000 enterprise customers on 5G and has seen growth in the number of active 5G smartphones to over 780,000.

‘We believe that the benefits of 5G will be a key catalyst in leapfrogging other innovations, industries as well as Kenya’s digital economy,’ says Peter Ndegwa, CEO, of Safaricom.

Airtel Kenya, on the other hand, stated in June of this year that it has doubled its 5G footprint in Kenya, with the network now available in 39 counties and 285 wards around the country.

At the same time, Airtel announced that it increased the number of its 5G sites to 690, up from 372 when the network went online.

The telco intends to launch an additional 1000 sites by the end of the year, bringing the total number of 5G sites to 1690.