Safaricom network outages jumped nearly fivefold, averaging 19.5 minutes per week by March 2024, as frequent power blackouts impacted the company’s infrastructure, new data reveals.
This sharp increase from the previous year’s weekly average of 4.1 minutes affected Safaricom’s 44.6 million users, leading the telecom giant to seek more dependable energy solutions.
During outages, Safaricom customers faced service disruptions across calls, texts, data, and mobile money. “Power-related disruptions surged in the 2024 financial year, prompting us to invest further in energy resilience, including renewable energy expansion,” Safaricom noted in its recent sustainability report.
To counter the issue, Safaricom optimized its Radio Access Network (RAN) to maintain connectivity. However, RAN availability dropped to 36.7% from 29.9%, reflecting challenges in meeting rising data demands across its 19,706 base stations. These stations, the backbone of Safaricom’s mobile network, depend on a power mix from Kenya Power, diesel generators, and increasingly solar and hybrid solutions.
By the end of the review period, only 276 Safaricom sites depended solely on Kenya Power, a decrease from 839 sites the year prior, while diesel-dependent sites dropped to 35 from 111. Solar and hybrid-powered sites remained steady at 1,432, although diesel reliance rose to 9% from 0.7%, underscoring the impact of Kenya Power’s reliability issues.
To address ongoing outages, Safaricom plans to deploy 3,000 solar PV sites in the next 18 months to phase out diesel generators. The Energy and Petroleum Authority (EPRA) further reported that in the year ending June, power outage durations increased to an average of 10.14 hours monthly, up from 8.37 hours. This rise has led more consumers to explore backup options like solar and biomass, as grid reliability continues to waver.