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What you need to know: This weblog captures key data points about the global telecoms industry. I use it as an electronic notebook to support my work for Pringle Media.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

3G Sales Soar for Safaricom

Driven by a 94% increase in data revenues, Kenya's Safaricom said that its revenue rose 18% to 40.66 billion Kenyan shillings (541 million US dollars) in the third quarter. Safaricom said that revenues from mobile broadband services climbed 160% and revenues from its M-PESA money transfer service soared 248%. The operator said it now has 1.8 million "distinct" data users.

Safaricom said that its 2G mobile sites have increased to 1,972 from 1,741 in September 2008 and 384 sites have been upgraded to 3G. The operator is also rolling out WiMAX to corporate branch networks, small businesses and home workers. It added that the SEACOM undersea cable, which came into operation at the end of July, has increased its data capacity.

Safaricom has launched a new tariff, called Supa Ongea, that dynamically gives subscribers discounts of up to 90% based on the time and their location with on-net call charges ranging from 80 cents to 8 Kenyan shillings per minute.

The operator said its M-PESA customer base had grown to 7.9 million users as of September 2009, while the number of agents for the service has reached 13,326 compared with 4,230 in September 2008. source: Safaricom statement

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