Expensive Data? Active Subscribers Reduce by 342,101 in February – NCC Reveals

NCC disclosed this in its Monthly Subscriber/Operator Data made available on its website on Monday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that active subscribers on the telecommunications networks reduced from 174,012,136 in January to 173,670,035 in February.

According to the data, 173,276,528 of the 173,670,035 active numbers subscribe to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services.

The GSM operators’ active customers’ figure decreased by 348,778 in February, against the 173,625,306 subscribers recorded in January.

The report stated that out of the GSM operators, MTN had 65,565,878 users in February, showing a decrease of 99,480 from the 66,665,378 it recorded in January.

“Globacom’s figure increased in February by 400,879 with 46,004,517 customers, as against 45,603,638 in January.

“Airtel had 44,975,532 subscribers in the month under review, which showed an increase of 4,559 users, from the 44,970,973 recorded in January.

“9mobile recorded 16,730,581 customers in February, having an increase of 345,264 subscribers, against 16,385,317 in January.

“The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators recorded 123,547 subscribers in the month under review, indicating a decrease of 710, from 124,257 users in January.

“Visafone which is one of the two surviving CDMA operators had 119,087 customers in February, showing a decrease of 710 from the 119,797 recorded in January,” it said.

The report added that Multi-Links had 4,460 in the month under review, same with the record of January.

“The monthly subscriber/operator data showed that Fixed Wireless network (landline) consumers remained at 26,865 in February.

“One of the two landline networks, Visafone had 26,437 subscribers, while Multi-Links maintained its record of 428 customers in the month under review.”

It also revealed that the Fixed Wired operators (landline) subscriber base decreased by 154; reducing to 107,795 users in February, as against 107,949 recorded in January.

“In the Fixed Wired arena, MTN Fixed moved from 5,480 users in January to 5,459 users in February, thereby decreasing by 21 customers.

“Glo Fixed had 2,884 users in February, decreasing by 12 customers from the January record of 2,896.

“IpNX network moved from 2,248 subscriber base in January to 2,233 in February, hence, its customers decreased by 15.”

It said that 21st Century Network had 97,219 customers in February, recording a decrease of 106 users from its January record of 97,325 subscribers.

The report also showed that the two Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) networks had 135,300 active users in February, as their customers increased by 7,541 from their January subscriber base of 127,759.

“Of the VOIP networks, Smile Communication had 129,468 customers, giving an increase of 8,207 users to its January result of 121,261.

“Ntel had 5,832 consumers subscribing to its products and services in February, showing a decrease of 666 users from the January record of 6,498,” it said.

The regulatory body said that Section 89, Subsection 3(c) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 mandates it to monitor and report the state of the telecommunications industry.

“The commission is mandated to provide statistical analyses and identify industry trends with regard to: services, tariffs, operators, technology, subscribers, issues of competition and dominance.

“This is with a view to identifying areas where regulatory intervention will be needed.

“The commission regularly conducts studies, surveys and produces reports on the telecommunications industry.

“Therefore, telecommunications operators are obligated, under the terms of their licenses, to provide NCC with such data on a regular basis for analytical review and publishing,” it said. (NAN)