Safaricom Dominates Kenya Broadband Market Despite Starlink's High Profile

Kenya's largest telecoms company, Safaricom, continues to lead the broadband market, adding more subscribers in the first quarter than Starlink has gained since its launch in the country. Despite Starlink's significant media attention, Safaricom's established fiber infrastructure remains the preferred choice for most users. Safaricom gained over 83,000 fixed internet subscribers in the quarter, increasing its customer base to over 941,000. Starlink, while growing, has a much smaller subscriber base. The data indicates that incumbent providers are actively competing by improving speeds and revising prices to counter the threat from satellite internet. Other fiber providers are also significantly outpacing Starlink's growth in Kenya. This suggests that scale and existing infrastructure are still key advantages in the broadband market, even with the emergence of new technologies like satellite internet.

Despite Starlink's visibility, Safaricom is significantly outpacing it in subscriber growth in Kenya, demonstrating the continued dominance of established fiber infrastructure.