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Airtel headquarters along Mombasa Road, Nairobi.
Airtel customers are the worst hit by call outages, negating the cheap rates that the telco offers in its battle for a market dominated by Safaricom.
A survey by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that 19.4 per cent of its callers experience more than five outages for every 100 calls made. A further 33 per cent report between three and five outages for every 100 calls.
“However, 26.6 percent experience successful completion only rarely, and 12 per cent never. This indicates that while a fair share of Airtel users enjoy reliable conversations, many still face frequent disruptions,” CA said.
Jamii Telecommunications has the second worst record, with 30.1 per cent of its users reporting more than five outages for every 100 calls, followed by 43.9 per cent who face the hitches between three and five times in every 100 calls.
The high number of dropped calls piles pressure on the two telcos to invest more and boost network coverage. The findings also signal deepening woes for Airtel, given that CA warned it over the poor network services last year and ordered it to shore up its coverage.
Dropped calls or outages refer to unexpected or abrupt ends to calls without either person hanging up. It is mainly caused by weak signals or congested networks.
The high rate of dropped calls on the networks highlights the struggle that Airtel and the other providers face in trying to eat into a market tightly in the grip of Safaricom.
Safaricom accounted for 61.2 per cent of the call-time or 18.31 billion minutes in the three months to September 2025, followed by Airtel at 38.6 per cent (11.56 billion minutes).
Callers talked for 29.9 billion minutes in the period under review which was a marginal growth from 29.1 billion minutes in the three months ended June 2025.
Safaricom had the best network coverage, with only 7.4 per cent of its users reporting more than five outages for every 100 calls.
“These figures indicate that Safaricom customers generally face fewer dropped calls compared to other providers, though it is important to note that a large share of respondents (65.3 per cent) selected ‘Don’t Know’,” CA states in the report.
Call outages are a breach of the law, with telcos facing fines for failing to meet the minimum industry requirements on service delivery.
Section 23 of the Kenya Information and Communications Act, 1998, requires telcos to offer good quality services in line with the licence conditions, failure to which they risk fines.
