There has been an increase of about 1,141,042 active Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services subscribers in Nigeria. This addition stemmed from the increased figures from 172,871,094 recorded in December 2018 to about 174,012,136 in January 2019.

This disclosure was made by the sector’s regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in its Monthly Subscriber and Operator Data made available on its website last weekend.

The reports stated that out of the GSM operators, MTN had 66,665,378 users in January, showing a decrease of 467,631 from the 67,133,009 it recorded in December 2018.

Globacom’s figure increased in January by 348,341 with 45,603,638 customers, as against 45,255,297 in December 2018.

Airtel had 44,970,973 subscribers in the month under review, which showed an increase of 790,489 users, from the 44,180,484 recorded in December 2018.

9mobile recorded 16,385,317 customers in January, having an increase of 468,302 subscribers, against 15,917,015 in December 2018.

The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators recorded 124,257 subscribers in the month under review, indicating a decrease of 165, from 124,092 users in December 2018.

Visafone, which is one of the two surviving CDMA operators had 119,797 customers in January 2019, showing an increase of 165 from the 119,632 recorded in December 2018.

On the other hand, Multi-Links had 4,460 in the month under review, same with the record of December 2018.

The monthly subscriber/operator data showed that the Fixed Wireless Network (landline) consumers remained at 26,865 in January 2019.

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 5,677; reducing to 107,949 users in January, as against 113,626 recorded in December 2018.

In the Fixed Wired arena, MTN Fixed moved from 5,450 users in December 2018 to 5,480 users in January 2019, thereby increasing by 30 customers.

Glo Fixed had 2,896 users in January, increasing by 17 customers from the December 2018 record of 2,879.

IpNX network moved from 2,281 subscriber base in December 2018 to 2,248 in January 2019, hence, its customers decreased by 33.

It said that 21st Century Network had 97,325 customers in January, recording a decrease of 5,691 users from its December 2018 record of 103,016 subscribers.

The report also showed that the two Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) networks had 127,759 active users in January, as their customers increased by 7,053, from their December 2018 subscriber base of 120,706.

Of the VOIP networks, Smile Communication had 121,261 customers, giving an increase of 8,060 users to its December result of 113,201.

Ntel had 6,498 consumers subscribing to its products and services in January, showing a decrease of 1,007 users to the December 2018 record of 7,505.

The regulatory body said that Section 89, Subsection 3(c) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 mandated 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 to identify 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,” NCC said.

In another industry development, shares in MTN Group fell as much as 5.4 per cent on Friday, a day after the South African mobile phone group announced guidance for annual profit that was lower than forecasts. The stock at Johannesburg Stock Exchange was down 3.9 per cent at 80.21 rand at early trading, recouping some losses after slipping to a low of 78.98 rand. Shortly after the market closed on Thursday, Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator said 2018 profits would likely rise by as much as 90 per cent. The forecast lagged behind an estimate of more a than two-fold jump in poll of seven analysts by Refintiv.

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