Kenya is moving to tighten telecoms network quality rules amid rising concern over congestion, patchy mobile internet performance and deteriorating user experience as the country accelerates its digital economy ambitions.
The country’s Communications Authority (CA) has proposed raising the minimum quality-of-service (QoS) compliance threshold for mobile operators from 80 percent to 90 percent, while also introducing tougher county-level monitoring and quarterly assessments.
The proposed rules would significantly raise the pressure on telecoms operators to improve everyday network reliability, from dropped calls and delayed call connections to sluggish internet speeds, stalled data sessions and unreliable mobile money and USSD services.
Currently, telcom operators are largely assessed on national averages, meaning strong performance in urban centres can mask weak service in rural or underserved counties.
But the new framework would allow penalties to be imposed regionally, exposing operators to sanctions even if their national scores remain above the compliance threshold.
Had the 90 percent threshold already been in place, for example, all of Kenya’s mobile operators would have failed the latest CA quality tests and faced penalties.
The regulator’s most recent QoS report for the year to June 2025 shows that Safaricom scored 89.72 percent, Airtel posted 81.14 percent while Telkom recorded 52.76 percent. This means under the existing 80 percent benchmark, only Safaricom and Airtel met the target.
The proposed framework also expands the number of service quality indicators operators are measured against, from 21 to 38 metrics.
The CA measures service quality through a combination of end-to-end drive and walk tests, network performance monitoring and quality-of-experience surveys conducted among consumers.
The tests evaluate voice, SMS and data services, including speech clarity, call setup times and network responsiveness.
This tougher stance is part of a global regulatory trend as governments seek to ensure telecom infrastructure keeps pace with exploding digital demand.
Globally, regulators often tighten QoS enforcement after periods of rapid subscriber growth, smartphone adoption, mobile internet expansion or spectrum allocations.
Operators may aggressively add customers and roll out cheaper data promotions without expanding network capacity at the same rate, leading to congestion, slower speeds and deteriorating customer experience.
Kenya’s telecom market is undergoing such a transition. Data from the CA shows Kenya added 724,753 new 5G users last year, bringing the total to 1.74 million subscribers as operators accelerated infrastructure rollouts and consumers shifted toward data-heavy applications such as video streaming, cloud services and mobile financial services.
Fourth-generation (4G) networks remain the country’s dominant mobile technology with 44.2 million users, while 3G and 2G still account for 5.7 million and 10.4 million users, respectively.
Analysts say the rapid migration toward faster 4G and 5G internet is placing fresh strain on networks and increasing scrutiny on operators’ investment levels.
Telecom quality regulation globally is shaped by standards developed by bodies such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and the International Electrotechnical Commission.
In recent years, global telecom regulation has moved from pure engineering benchmarks toward “Quality of Experience” (QoE), meaning regulators increasingly focus on how consumers actually experience services rather than simply whether networks meet technical thresholds.
This means operators can technically comply with engineering standards while users still experience poor internet responsiveness, buffering or failed calls. The stricter rules also come as Kenya seeks to position itself as a regional technology and fintech hub, ambitions that rely heavily on reliable digital infrastructure.
Poor telecom quality can undermine cloud adoption, artificial intelligence deployments, startup ecosystems and investor confidence, particularly as businesses become more dependent on digital platforms.
Data from global internet testing platform Ookla shows Kenya ranked 84th globally for mobile broadband speeds in April 2026, with average speeds of 46.25 Mbps. In fixed broadband, Kenya ranked a much lower 145th globally at 17.74 Mbps.
Within Africa, Kenya trails countries such as South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Nigeria on mobile internet performance.
Some analysts argue that CA’s QoS framework still lacks transparency because the regulator does not publicly publish comparative speed results for operators and only evaluates mobile providers while excluding fixed broadband companies.
Independent testing data from France-based network performance platform nPerf ranks Safaricom highest in Kenya’s mobile internet market with 48,015 points compared to Airtel’s 30,156.
Safaricom’s average download and upload speeds stood at 30.6 Mbps and 9.7 Mbps, respectively, compared to Airtel’s 13.2 Mbps and 4.7 Mbps.
On fixed internet, Faiba ranked highest with a score of 67,150, ahead of Vijiji Connect at 59,321 and Safaricom at 55,978.
Faiba recorded average download speeds of 43.7 Mbps and upload speeds of 28.03 Mbps.
The CA’s tougher proposals could increase pressure on operators not only to expand 4G and 5G coverage, but also to optimise network performance in congested areas and underserved counties.
Analysts say QoS performance influences competitiveness as mobile internet and digital financial services increasingly become essential utilities.
