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NAIROBI, April 14 (Reuters) - Kenya's top telecoms operator
Safaricom has seen a 70% surge in data usage as people
stay at home to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, it said
on Tuesday.
The government closed schools and asked people to work from
home where possible last month, after the East African nation
reported its first case of the virus.
Confirmed cases have risen to 208 and additional
restrictions, including a night time curfew, have been imposed.
Safaricom, which is partly owned by South Africa's Vodacom
and Britain's Vodafone, said mobile phone data
usage had jumped 35% as users streamed movies, worked from home
and used social media sites like Facebook.
The company is one of the biggest providers of internet
access in Kenya, supplying 300,000 homes with a fibre
connection, and nearly all of the 47 million population with
second, third and fourth generation mobile internet coverage.
Along with financial services platform M-Pesa, the data
business has been one of the key drivers of earnings growth for
Safaricom in recent years.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Jon Boyle and Mark
Potter)