Kenyans sent out a total of 14,800,165,781 SMS during the fourth quarter that covered between April and June according to a report released by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA).
According to CA, the number of SMSs sent during the fourth quarter was slightly lower than those sent during the third quarter. During the third quarter, a total of 14,912,565,253 SMSs were sent.
Kenyans used six service providers to send out messages during the fourth quarter; Safaricom PLC, Airtel Kenya, Telkom Kenya, Finserve Africa Limited, Sema Mobile Services, and Mobile Pay Limited.
Kenyans still prefer Safaricom in sending SMS as compared to other market players. During the quarter, Kenyans sent 13,929,248,741 SMS via Safaricom. This was a slight drop from 14,159,357,808 SMSs sent during the third quarter.
Airtel is the second platform that Kenyans sent the most SMSs during the quarter under review. Kenyans sent 779,918,650 SMS via Airtel. This was a drop from 85,662,918 SMSs sent during the third quarter.
Telkom Kenya comes in third in the number of SMS sent in the fourth quarter. A total of 82,035,063 SMSs went through Telkom, a slight drop from 85,662,918 during the third quarter.
The image below shows SMSs per service provider in April to June period compared to January to March period.
Kenyans are increasingly moving away from sending SMS as they embrace the use of WhatsApp and Facebook. The report by CA indicates that Facebook and WhatsApp that provide connectivity to users for free has taken up a big chunk of services such as SMS that is often billed by other telecommunications companies in the country.
Despite the drop in SMS sent during the quarter, CA indicated that the overall market share grew from 15 percent in 2017 to 21 percent this year to June. Safaricom PLC shrunk in market share from 72.6 percent to 65.4 percent over the period under review.