Active telecoms subscribers reduce to 149m in April —NCC

THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed that active telecommunication subscribers reduced from 152,467,198 in March, 2017 to 149,249,510 in the month of April.

The telecommunications industry regulator made this known in its Monthly Subscriber/Operator Data obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

It said that the active telecommunications service customers declined by 3,217,688 in April, as against 152,467,198 in March, 2017.

According to the data, 148,774,015 of the 149,249,510 active numbers subscribed to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services.

The GSM operators’ active customers decreased by 3,225,182 on the 151,999,197 subscribers recorded in March.

The reports stated that of the GSM operators, MTN had 58,121,427 users in April, showing a decrease of 2,270,532 from the 60,391,959 recorded in March.

Globacom’s figure decreased in April by 58,727 with 37,270,100 customers, as against 37,328,827 in March.

Airtel had 34,336,802 subscribers in the month under review, which showed a decline of 319,803 users, from the 34,656,605 recorded in March.

Etisalat also recorded a drop in customers by 576,120 in April, giving a customer base of 19,045,686, as against 19,621,806 users in March.

The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators had 217,566 users in April, which was same with the result for March.

Between the two surviving CDMA service providers, Visafone had 213,106 customers, while Multi-Links had 4,460 in the month under review.

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

Between the two landline networks, Visafone had 26,437 subscribers, while Multi-Links maintained its record of 428 customers.

It also revealed that the Fixed Wired operators (landline) subscriber base increased by 1,304, giving a total of 126,939 users in April, as against 125,635 recorded in March.

In the Fixed Wired arena, MTN Fixed moved from having 9,532 in March to 9,237 in April, thereby decreasing by 295 users, while Glo Fixed had 12,751 users in April, adding just four customers to the March record of 12,747.

IpNX network moved from 2,611 subscriber base in March to 2,649 in April, increasing its customers by 38.

It said that 21st Century network had 102,304 customers in April, recording an increase of 1,559 users on its March record of 100,745.

The report also showed that the two Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) networks had 97,935 active users in March, as their customers increased by 12,064 from their February subscriber base of 89,871.

Of the VOIP networks, Smile Communication had 42,308 customers, giving an increase of 2,963 users to its March result of 39,345.

Ntel had 61,817 consumers subscribing to its products and services in the month of April, showing an increase of 3,227 users to the March record of 53,590.

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 the licenses, to provide NCC with such data on a regular basis for analytical review and publishing,” the report said.