The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) recorded 78.7 million mobile phone devices connected to the country’s networks in the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, representing a penetration rate of 147.6 percent.

Active mobile subscriptions rose 7.4 percent to 84.1 million, pushing overall mobile penetration to 157.7 percent, driven largely by prepaid lines that now account for 96.5 percent of all subscriptions.

Smartphones made up 63.7 percent of the total devices, with 52.3 million units reported by the end of June 2026, while feature‑phone numbers fell 3.7 percent to 28.5 million.

Mobile data subscriptions grew modestly, reaching 62.6 million, of which 84.4 percent are on broadband services; total broadband consumption hit 800 million gigabytes, a six‑percent increase.

Machine‑to‑machine (M2M) subscriptions rose 8.8 percent to two million, and mobile money subscriptions climbed 3.9 percent to 53.4 million, giving a mobile‑money penetration of 100.1 percent.

Safaricom retained the largest market shares, controlling 68.9 percent of mobile subscriptions, 62.7 percent of mobile broadband, and an overwhelming 89.1 percent of mobile‑money accounts.

Domestic voice traffic increased 2.6 percent to 32.3 billion minutes, while SMS traffic fell 2.7 percent to 14 billion messages, reflecting a shift toward internet‑based messaging apps.

International voice traffic continued to grow, with incoming and outgoing minutes reaching 176.4 million and 192.8 million respectively, though international SMS volumes declined.

Fixed‑line data subscriptions rose 7.9 percent to 2.66 million, and the country’s available international bandwidth expanded 16.4 percent to 28,130.3 Gbps, supporting the surge in mobile broadband usage.

The CA attributes the overall growth to lower device costs, broader high‑speed network coverage, and increasing reliance on mobile platforms for financial, educational, and business services.