The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) will redirect up to Sh6 billion from the Universal Service Fund (USF) to upgrade broadcasting, postal and courier infrastructure by 2027, in a strategy shift that seeks to expand access despite declining usage of these services.
It plans to spend the money traditionally reserved for internet and mobile phone connectivity to build broadcasting transmitters, towers, and antennas, as well as distribution networks and stations for postal services.
The plan allocates Sh2.9 billion to improve Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio infrastructure, while Sh3.1 billion will go toward strengthening postal and courier services in underserved areas.
The CA estimates that over 4.5 million households in Kenya rely on DTT for news and entertainment, many of whom experience poor picture quality and unstable signals.
The authority aims to increase DTT coverage from the current 91.9 percent to at least 95 percent by 2027.
“Broadcasting is still important. It may not be important in the cities, but it’s still important in the rural areas,” said Leo Boruett, director of the Universal Service Fund.
“When you put up broadcasting infrastructure, you actually stimulate other economic activities. For example, the same infrastructure can also be used for mobile. So we will still continue because our focus is on developing access.”
The Universal Service Fund was established to support ICT infrastructure in areas considered commercially unviable by private companies. It is financed through mandatory contributions from licensed operators in the sector.
Historically, the fund has been used to build mobile network masts and lay fibre optic cables to improve connectivity. Under the revised strategy, the CA is now expanding the fund’s mandate to include legacy broadcasting and courier systems.
The move comes amid falling TV viewership and radio listenership in the country. Data from the CA shows that television and radio usage dropped by three and two percentage points respectively in 2024, with both currently at 74 percent penetration.
The postal sector has seen a sharper decline. Kenyans sent just 816,344 domestic letters in the last quarter of 2024, down from 13.1 million in the same quarter a decade earlier. While traditional postal services continue to shrink, courier deliveries have remained resilient, buoyed by the growth of e-commerce and logistics demand.
Kenya adopted DTT in 2009, but more than 1.5 million households still depend on Direct-To-Home (DTH) broadcasting, which remains much more unstable and prone to poor signal quality.
Through the USF, the CA has previously expanded 2G network coverage to 96.6 per cent and broadband internet access from 78 per cent in 2016 to 96.3 per cent by 2021.
Overall, USF targets to raise up to Sh40 billion by 2027 to fund the new strategy, which also seeks to improve usage of internet services in the country, and to improve digital empowerment of women, persons with disabilities and youth.
