Active subscriptions for telecommunications services across mobile networks of MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile rose to 208.6 million in July compared with 206.5 million in June, according to the latest data from the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
This is an indication that more mobile telephone users activated and reactivated 2.47 million telephone lines in July.
The data shows that Glo recorded the highest gain of 2.1 million subscriptions in the month of the total increase in active mobile lines for the period under review.
In July, MTN activated 392,440 telephone lines; Airtel 90,955 while 9mobile subscriptions fell by 63,840.
Largely, MTN, which, on August 24 began a pilot 5G services in Nigeria with the hope of spreading commercial services to Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan Kano, Owerri and Maiduguri by year-end, maintained its dominance of the market with 38 per cent penetration and 79.4 million customers.
Globacom is next with 58.3 million users and 27.9 per cent market reach. Airtel is third with 27.9 per cent reach and 58.2 million users, while 9mobile was at the bottom of the chart in the fourth position, servicing 12.5 million users and six per cent penetration.
With the growth recorded by operators, the country’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, also jumped from 108.15 per cent in June to 109.47 per cent in July 2022.
According to NCC, the teledensity is calculated based on a population estimate of 190 million.
Further analysis shows that the mobile network operators gained 13.5 million new subscriptions, a departure from last year, when they lost close to 20 million subscriptions as a result of the government’s ban on new SIM registration between December 2020 and April 2021.
Also, in terms of Internet subscriptions, the quartet of MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile pushed the numbers from 150.7 million in June to 151.4 million by July. Other platforms to access the Internet (Fixed Wired, ISP wired/wireless) added 366,271 to push the figure to 152 million.
Broadband connections also rose by 310,631, moving from 84.6 million in June to 84.9 million in July.
