Safaricom hits 1 million home internet users. Now comes the hard part

Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecoms operator, has become the first internet service provider in the country to surpass one million fixed broadband subscribers. According to data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), the company had 1,024,950 subscribers by the end of June 2026, turning a business that was barely present nine years ago into a major growth driver.

The milestone gives Safaricom a 36.1% market share and validates a volume-led strategy. Management used its existing mobile money and cellular networks to bring home broadband into the same ecosystem, linking more services around the customer. 

Yet this broadband empire faces structural strain. While Safaricom suppressed short-term profit margins to acquire users to capture market share, its aggressive data-throttling policy has ignited consumer backlash. 

At the same time, newly recapitalised rivals are mounting aggressive challenges, and barriers to entry have become so severe that global telecommunications giants are retreating from the infrastructure layer entirely.

The ecosystem trap and volume economics

Safaricom’s primary competitive advantage has been its reach across mobile and mobile money. As of June 2026, the company controlled almost 70% of mobile subscriptions and 88% of mobile money transfers, giving it a large customer base to sell home internet alongside mobile services.

With products like Family Share, customers can link home broadband to mobile data, voice minutes, and SMS. The strategy turned fibre from a standalone service into part of a broader mobile package, making it harder for customers to leave. Switching networks means giving up both the home connection and the bundled mobile benefits.

Commercially, the firm chose volume over near-term revenue per customer. In April 2026, the telco doubled fibre speeds across most residential plans without raising prices. The 15 megabits per second (Mbps) plan more than doubled to 40 Mbps for KES 3,000 ($23) a month, while the 30 Mbps tier doubled to 60 Mbps for KES 4,100 ($32). The move put pressure on fibre-to-the-home average revenue per user, which fell 2.5% year on year to KES 2,297 ($17.73) in the latest financial year.