The Communications Authority tightens the noose on lazy telcos, introducing real-time monitoring and county-level penalties to guarantee your 5G connection.

The days of "network busy" excuses are numbered. In a sweeping regulatory overhaul announced today, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has introduced stringent new Quality of Service (QoS) rules that will fundamentally change how mobile networks are policed. The headline change? A new compliance threshold of 90%, up from the previous 80%, forcing Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya to significantly up their game or face multi-million shilling fines.

For the average Kenyan, who has long suffered from dropped calls and buffering videos despite paying for premium 4G and 5G bundles, this is a welcome intervention. The regulator has admitted that the old rules were lagging behind technology. "The 80% threshold was for a 3G world," an official noted. "We are now in a 5G streaming economy. The bar must be raised."

Real-Time Surveillance

The most radical shift is the move to "near real-time" monitoring. Previously, the CA relied on periodic audits that could miss intermittent outages. The new framework allows the regulator to monitor network stability continuously. If a tower in Turkana goes down, the CA wants to know immediately—and they want to know why.

County-Level Accountability

Perhaps the most stinging provision for telcos is the localization of penalties. Under the old regime, a network could mask poor performance in rural areas with stellar performance in Nairobi, achieving a passing "national average." The new rules introduce county-level enforcement.

• No Hiding Place: A telco can be fined specifically for poor service in Marsabit, even if their Nairobi service is perfect.
• 5G Inclusion: For the first time, 5G networks are explicitly included in the quality mandates.
• Consumer Power: The rules are designed to align with actual user experience (Voice Quality, Data Throughput) rather than just technical signal strength.

The Compliance Cost

Industry insiders warn that the new 90% target is "aggressive" and will require massive capital investment in infrastructure. However, the CA is unmoved. With mobile money and digital government services now central to Kenyan life, connectivity is no longer a luxury—it is a utility. The message to the telcos is clear: Shape up, or pay up.