Voice and data fetch N731.94b in Q1, up 15.42%
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Voice and data subscription produced N731.94 billion revenue for MTN and Airtel, the top two telecom networks, in the first quarter of the year to March (Q1 2023), a 15.42 per cent rise year-on-year (YoY) from N634.17 billion Q1 2022.
Their financial results show MTN made N505.45 billion from calls and data, Airtel N226.49 billion.
The baseline trajectory of both carriers shows a growing uptake in data services with data revenue almost toppling voice revenue.
MTN made N277.61 billion from voice and N227.84 billion from data; Airtel made $262 million (N120.61 billion) from voice and $230 million (N105.88billion) from data.
But MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer Karl Toriola lamented the firm faced headwinds in Q1 2023 which hindered greater revenue.
“We continued to experience headwinds in our operating environment in the first quarter of 2023,” he said.
“The impacts of the ongoing global macroeconomic and geopolitical developments on energy, food, and general inflation were exacerbated locally by petrol and cash shortages experienced during the period. This placed additional pressure on economic activity, consumers, and businesses.
“The private sector experienced the deepest contraction in March 2023 since the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, driving down the PMI index to 42.3 points from 44.7 points in February 2023.”
MTN disclosed in its result its data revenue rose 40.0 per cent on the sustained growth of its active data users and increased data usage.
“This was enabled by our sustained investment in our networks to drive 4G and 5G coverage and enhance the quality and capacity of the network to support the rising data traffic,” the result said.
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Challenging operating environment
“Over the last year, the operating environment has been challenging in many ways, yet our strategic focus on providing reliable, affordable and accessible services across our markets has enabled us to sustain our top-line growth momentum,” Airtel Africa CEO Olusegun Ogunsanya, according to reporting by The PUNCH.
Airtel disclosed it result it has lost $110 million revenue since it stopped some customers from making calls based on government directive that telecom firms bar subscribers who fail to link their SIMs to their National Identity Numbers (NINs).
“Data revenue increased by 27.8 per cent in constant currency, driven by both data customer base growth of 17.3 per cent and data ARPU growth of 9.9 per cent,” Airtel said.
“Over the last year, we have enhanced our 4G network with ample data network capacity to provide high-speed data to our customers with almost 100 per cent of our sites now on 4G and data capacity increase of 27.5 per cent.”
The World Bank has explained increased consumption of data services is one of the major contributors to Nigeria’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
Data consumption is predicted to continue to rise in Nigeria due to growth in smartphone traffic, which is expected to drive data usage to at least 19GB per person per month by 2028, according to Ericsson Mobility Report (June 2023).