Safaricom eyes larger piece of landline phone market

Kenya: Mobile network service provider Safaricom has made a move to capture a bigger slice of the country's fixed landline market, traditionally dominated by Orange Kenya.

In a move likely to spark a price war in the highly competitive telecommunications industry, Safaricom yesterday embarked on a marketing campaign that compares its offering with rival Orange Kenya's services.

"Cut your costs and save thousands of shillings with Safaricom Landline. Our landline rates are the best in the business allowing you to call on and off the network for only Sh4 flat," read the advert placed in the country's dailies.

Orange, which has the most extensive fixed line network, offers local landline rates of Sh6 for on-net and Sh12 for off-net calls.

Safaricom has traditionally offered fixed line services through it's corporate arm, Safaricom Business, targeting corporate organisations and recently small and middle-sised businesses.

The company has, however, embarked on an aggressive campaign aimed at capturing a bigger share of the opportunities that arise from the demand of telecommunication services from the private and public sector across the country.

INDUSTRY REPORTS

However, data from the latest industry reports state that the number of fixed lines continued to shrink with the number of subscribers in the last quarter standing at 201,233, down from 206,129 lines in the previous quarter.

In particular, fixed terrestrial lines declined by 7.2 per cent and stood at 52,053, down from 56,103 in the last quarter. Wireless subscriptions also declined by 0.6 per cent to reach 149,180 subscriptions from 150,026 recorded in the previous quarter.

This is not the first time the two companies are engaged in price wars. Last year Safaricom sued Telkom over an advert which depicted Safaricom as having more expensive voice tariffs. Advertising Standards Committee later ruled that Telkom Kenya flouted the publicity code.