Mobile operator Safaricom is set to announce its full year financial results for 2011/2012 on Thursday. The largest mobile operator in Kenya has in the recent past been experiencing drops in its profit.

For the half year 2011/2012, Safaricom realized drops in profits to Shs. 4.01 billion shillings from 7.63 billion the same period last year. The largest mobile market share holder now has an active customer base of 18.1 million subscribers with revenues of Kshs.49.6 billion for the half year ending September 2011.

Safaricom looks at a yet stiffer competition in the voice market should the Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) proposed by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) be implemented. The operator is strongly opposing the move to slash the amount of money operators pay to rivals when their subscribers call rival networks, terming the revision as out dated and not considering current market dynamics. CCK has proposed to slash termination rates to Sh1.44 a minute from the current Sh2.21.

Last year, Safaricom posted a profit before tax of Kshs. 18.36 billion which was a 12.4% decline from results posted the previous year. Its results released in 2010 posted a pre-tax profit of Kshs. 20.97 billion.