Kenya - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Kenya - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Kenya’s universal service fund extends broadband to underserved areas

Kenya’s telecom regulator has been working to close the digital gap between urban and rural areas of the country, largely relying on the USF. This supports the updated national broadband strategy, which is focussed on providing a broadband services of at least 3Mb/s to 90% of the population by 2023. In addition, a 10Mb/s service should be available to all schools, healthcare centres, and government facilities by the end of 2022. Further goals for 2030 include providing a 10Mb/s service nationally and a 100Mb/s to 80% of the population.

The government commissioned a study (the ICT Access Gaps study) in 2016, which found that 166 of 7,149 locations in the country had no telecom coverage, while an additional 418 had less than 50% population coverage and 5,655 locations were fully covered. The 166 localities accounted for about 2.66 million people.

Phase 1 of the project (funded by teh USF) was launched in late 2018, with Safaricom and Telkom Kenya contracted to carry out the work. This work was incomplete, and in February 2021 the regulator identified 101 localities to be covered with telecom services. It committed KES1.57 billion, which formed Phase 2 of the USF. Contracts were awarded to Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, and others, and the work by these companies must be completed within two years.