4 out of every 10 users left Telkom Kenya in one year. This significant crash now places the telecom company in fourth place among competitors like Safaricom and Airtel. Equitel, Equity Bank’s mobile operator running on Airtel’s infrastructure, now claims the third spot with 1.5 million subscribers, while Safaricom and Airtel maintain their dominance in the top two.

What happened? The collapse began in 2023 when American Tower Corporation (ATC) disconnected nearly 900 of Telkom’s masts over $55 million in unpaid lease fees, triggering a coverage crisis. Network quality declined, and customers flocked to competitors with more reliable service.

Why does this matter? Poor service drives customers away, shrinking revenue, making it harder to fix the network and pay debts. Falling to fourth place means Telkom is unlikely to raise capital or attract strategic investors for 4G/5G upgrades, leaving the telco with deteriorating infrastructure and no real, clear path to get its numbers and customers back. 

Zoom out: Telkom still owns valuable assets, 4,000km of fiber and data centers, but recovery could be unlikely. Its situation mirrors Nigeria’s T2 (formerly 9mobile, formerly Etisalat), which defaulted on $1.2 billion in loans in 2017, fell from third to fourth place, and still hasn’t recovered its market position. Both cases show how quickly debt problems can trigger irreversible subscriber decline. The question is: how will Telkom bounce back?