Active internet subscribers hit 169m in Nov, says NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission says there are 169,104,830 active subscribers on the telecommunications networks in November, as against 165,239,443 recorded in October 2018.

The telecommunications regulator made this known in its Monthly Subscriber/Operator Data made available on its website on Friday.

In  a  reports from  one of the newspaper reveal  that the active subscribers increased by 3.86 million in November, after the 165 million subscribers recorded in October.

According to the data, 168,729,005 of the 169,104,830 active numbers subscribed to the Global System for Mobile Communications network services.

The active customers increased by 3,865,588 in November, after the 164,865,417 subscribers recorded in October.

The report stated that out of the GSM operators, MTN had 66,974,992 users in November, showing an increase of 1,323,282 from the 65,651,710 it recorded in October.

Globacom’s figure increased in November by 1,691,133 with 43,273,188 customers, as against 41,582,055 in October.

Airtel had 43,119,154 subscribers in the month under review, which showed an increase of 849,173 users, from the 42,269,981 recorded in October.

9mobile recorded 15,361,691 customers in November, which was same in October 2018.

The Code Division Multiple Access operators recorded 124,815 subscribers in the month under review, indicating a decrease of 1,217, from 126,032 users in October.

Visafone which is one of the two surviving CDMA operators had 120,355 customers, showing a decrease of 1,217 from the 121,572 recorded in October.

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

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

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.

The report indicated that the Fixed Wired operators (landline) subscriber base decreased by 166, coming down to 108,831 users in November, as against 108,997 recorded in October.

In the Fixed Wired arena, MTN Fixed moved from 5,422 users in October to 5,499 users in November, thereby increasing by 77 users.

Glo Fixed had 2,805 users in November, reducing by 401 customers from the October record of 3,206.

IpNX network moved from 2,404 subscriber base in October to 2,357 in November, hence, its customers decreased by 47.

It said that 21st Century Network had 98,170 customers in November, recording an increase of 205 users from its October record of 97,965 subscribers.

The report also showed that the two Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) networks had 115,314 active users in November, as their customers increased by 3,182, from their October subscriber base of 112,132.

Of the VOIP networks, Smile Communication had 107,366 customers, giving an increase of 3,106 users to its October result of 104,260.

Ntel had 7,948 consumers subscribing to its products and services in November, showing an increase of 76 users to the October record of 7,872.

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 with a view to identifying 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.