By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
MTN, the first countrywide mobile telephone network established in Nigeria in 2001, is still on the leader board nearly two decades later with latest data showing it has 83,331,682 by October 2020 or 40.14 per cent of the national subscriber base.
Figures newly released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) show that Airtel (also established in 2001 as Econet) has 56,214,072 subscribers (27.08 per cent), Globacom 55,079,362 (26.53 per cent), and 9Mobile 12,953,121 (6.24 per cent).
A telephone subscriber may use voice call and opt out of the different segment of data for internet access. But even in the data section, MTN gained 1.74 million subscribers in June 2020 against 882,458 in May.
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Glo led the charts in May when it gained 8.302 million data subscribers. Its figure grew from 28.934 million in December 2019 to 37.236 million in May 2020.
MTN gained 4.75 million data subscribers in May. Airtel had 2.795 million while 9mobile lost 812,827 subscribers, according to NCC figures.
In June, MTN beat all competitors as its data subscribers rose to 60.60 million from 58.86 million in May, an addition of 1.74 million.
Other highlights of the report
The latest NCC report, quoted by Nairametrics, show that
· Total telephone subscribers across all networks grew 1.3 per cent month-on-month from 204,869,652 in September to 207,578,237 in October 2020; and 15.3 per cent year-on-year from 180,000,075 in October 2019.
· Internet subscribers rose 0.9 per cent month-on-month from 151,063,413 in September to 152,481,376 in October 2020; and 23.8 per cent year-on-year growth from 123,123,676 in October 2019.
· In telephone subscription as of October 2020, MTN recorded 0.8 per cent month-on-month growth and 26.5 per cent year-on-year. It grew internet subscription 1.0 per cent month-on-month and 24.6 per cent year-on-year.
· Airtel had 1.7 per cent month-on-month rise and 14.5 per cent year-on-year in telephone subscription. Its internet subscription grew 1.1 per cent month-on-month and 21.2 per cent year-on-year.
· Globacom recorded 1.5 per cent month-on-month growth and 9.6 per cent year-on-year in telephone subscription; and 0.8 per cent month-on-month and 36 per cent year-on-year in internet subscription
· 9Mobile recorded 1.8 per cent month-on-month growth but dipped 12.4 per cent year-on-year in telephone subscription. It grew internet subscription 0.3 per cent month-on-month but lost it by 12.6 per cent year-on-year.
· In October 2020, only 73.5 per cent of telephone subscribers across all carriers also subscribed to the internet; 73.7 per cent did in September 2020 and 68.4 per cent in October 2019.
Telecom contributes 9.5% to GDP in Q3 2020
· A separate report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the information and communication sector contributed 9.57 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2020.
· Nairametrics reports that the telecom sector remains resilient amid the coronavirus pandemic, with a surge in demand for data usage and in total mobile subscribers.
· The pandemic has forced organisations to adopt remote workspace/digital workspace that increases demand for data services.