In latest figures on internet supply released by the Communications Authority of Kenya, 75 per cent of the country’s internet provision remained unused.
The figures were for the first quarter of March, as it will lead to price wars from internet companies who may need to entice more customers.
Data by the CA showed that between January 1 and March 31, only 3.4 billion bits per second (Gbps) of internet bandwidth was used by Kenyans of the total available capacity of 10.9bn. The oversupply and quest for control of the excess is expected to trigger investment in the country.
Unutilised bandwidth in the country at the moment stands at 7.5Gbps as organisations look to deploy more infrastructure to take advantage of the excess.
“During the review period, leased/available international internet bandwidth remained unchanged whereas bandwidth capacity utilised within the country increased by 15.2 percent to stand at 3,386.19 Gbps,” the report said.
Undersea bandwidth, however enjoyed a growth as it increased to 3.3Gbps while those sold on other countries stood at about 1.8Gbps.
About 2.9Gbps of satellite internet facility was sold overall.
Between October and December 2021, 2.9Gbps of undersea bandwidth was sold in the country and the current figure is a growth on the previous quarter.
Internet infrastructure in Kenya is heavily invested in with Google, Facebook, Airtel and other companies committing billions into investments in the country as Kenya is seen as a significant target in internet infrastructure in Africa.
According to Kenya’s Daily Nation, there was 15,000-kilometre submarine cable in Mombasa buried by Telkom Kenya and Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (Peace) Cable Company in March.
The results of the investments are yet to be fully recouped but there’s hope for the future especially in the areas of providing affordable internet.