Telkom Kenya's revision of its total number of active subscribers has resulted in a reduction in the overall number of mobile subscribers in the East African country. This is according to the Communications Authority of Kenya's first quarterly communication sector report for 2016/2017.

The total number of active mobile subscribers stands at 38.5 million down from 39.7 million recorded in the previous quarter. Telkom itself has lost 2.3 million in the new calculation.

"The pre-paid and post-paid subscriptions dropped by 44.1 percent and 8.0 percent respectively during the quarter under review," the report said.

In a rare move, the Authority said: "The decline is attributed to the alignment of the reporting by Telkom Kenya Limited to the regulatory requirement that defines active subscribers as those who have used a revenue generating service within the preceding 90-day period."

With this move, Telkom's market share dropped to 7.6% from 13.2% last quarter. Safaricom still holds the market share at 69%, followed by Airtel at 17.5%.

The internet subscriber numbers were also affected by the Telkom Kenya's revision. It reduced the number of internet subscribers to 25.6 million from 26.8 million in the last quarter.

"However, compared with the same period of the previous financial year, growth of 18.5 percent was noted. On the other hand, there was a nominal growth on estimated Internet users of 2,071 subscriptions to stand at 37.7 million. This translated to Internet/data penetration level of 85.3 percent during the quarter," the report explained.

International bandwidth showed a great rise by 17.2% to stand at 2.02 million Mbps from 1.73 million Mbps recorded in the previous quarter.

"This was mainly attributed to the increase of Seacom's capacity by 31.6 percent to reach 1.25 million Mbps during the quarter under review up from 0.95 million Mbps recorded in the previous quarter," the CA said.

Fibre optic subscription also jumped by 20.7% to recorded 33,269 subscriptions from 27,571 posted in the last period.

Despite the drop of mobile and internet subscribers, CA believes the country is still on a growth trajectory.

"The uptake of ICT services in Kenya has remained high over a period of time. The mobile sector has grown to be a key pillar in facilitating the expansion of the economy in provision of services such as mobile financial services, M-education, M-agriculture among other services. The growth of mobile money subscriptions has enhanced digital financial inclusion in the country," the CA concluded.