The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) announced a new Quality of Service (QoS) assessment framework in January 2026, introducing significant adjustments to the assessment weights of various telecommunications services. Under the new assessment formula, voice services are assigned a weight of 50%, internet services (including 5G) see their weight increased to 45%, while the weight of SMS services is sharply reduced to just 5%.
The CA stated that the decision to raise the weight of internet services is aimed at "capturing the dominant role of mobile internet in urban and semi-urban areas." Meanwhile, the CA also plans to raise the compliance threshold from 80% to 90% and introduce a quarterly penalty mechanism for non-compliance. Analysts point out that this move by the CA will prompt telecom operators to increase investment in infrastructure, including cell towers, fiber optic cables, and even data centers.
From the perspective of the A2P SMS business, the drastic reduction of the SMS service quality assessment weight to 5% sends a clear signal: the focus of Kenya's telecommunications regulation is shifting from traditional SMS services to internet data services. For A2P SMS service providers, this means SMS has been relegated to a marginal position in the CA's regulatory priorities — although A2P SMS remains an important channel for enterprise communications, its weight in the regulator's strategic layout has given way to voice and internet services. This may lead telecom operators to relatively reduce their investment in SMS network maintenance and optimization, which in turn will affect key quality indicators of A2P SMS such as delivery rate and latency.
At the same time, the increase of the compliance threshold from 80% to 90% means operators face stricter overall service assessment pressure, and may allocate more resources to the high-weight voice and internet sectors. A2P SMS service providers need to pay close attention to actual changes in operators' SMS service quality, and prepare multi-channel communication backup solutions to address potential risks of service quality fluctuations.
