… As Networks Receive 3327 Porting Subscribers
Mobile telephone subscription in Nigeria continued its upward climb which started in May 2021, albeit gradual, after a sharp fall in subscription figures from October 2020 following the ban on new SIM acquisition and registration.
Statistics released by the nation’s regulatory body shows that subscription for the month of August 2021 stood at 189,330,257, and teledensity of 99.18%, a marginal rise against the July figure 187, 805,237.
As at October 2020, Nigeria’s subscription figure was 207,954,737, with a teledensity of 108.94%.
The lull in subscription was as a result of the ban on the acquisition and registration of new SIM cards by the federal government to allow for the registration of SIM cards already in use, an exercise that was prompted by the security situation in the country and the need for user identification.
Consequently market shares by operators for the month of August 2021 saw MTN Nigeria topping the pack with 73,133,330 subscribers or 38.70% of subscription, followed by Globacom with 51,983,266 subscribers accounting for 27.50%. Airtel Nigeria retained the 3rd position with 50,860,024 subscribers or 26.91% market share, while late entrant, 9mobile has 13,021,179 subscribers accounting for 6.89%.
Similarly, NCC release the porting data for the networks. According to the statistics, in the month of August 2021, total subscribers that left their networks for other networks stood at 3327. MTN Nigeria received the most subscribers into its network. The Mobile Network Operator has 2014 subscribers moving onto the network, while it lost 498 subscribers to other networks. Airtel gained 1,089 subscribers but lost 323 others. 9mobile gained 224, and lost 1716, while Globacom did not gain any porting subscribers, but lost 343 of its subscribers to other networks.
Nigeria presently has 99.80% of its telephony as GSM technology, without any Mobile CDMA. However, it also boasts of 0.10% each of Fixed Wireless and Voice over Internet (VoIP) technologies.
The NCC regularly conducts studies and surveys and produces reports on the telecommunications industry; and telecommunications operators are obligated, under the terms of their licenses, to provide the NCC with such data on a regular basis for analytical review and publishing.
This practice is in consistent with Section 89 Subsection 3(d) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 (NCA 2003). By this, the Commission is mandated to monitor and report on the state of the Nigerian telecommunications industry, provide statistical analyses and identify industry trends with regard to services, tariffs, operators, technology, subscribers, issues of competition and dominance, among other, with a view to identifying areas where regulatory intervention would be needed;
