Active telecoms subscribers decreased by 72,782 in April – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says the active subscribers on the telecommunication networks reduced by 72,782 in April 2019.

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

Our correspondent reports that the active subscribers on the telecommunications networks decreased from 173,713,842 in March to 173,641,060 in April.

According to the data, 173,383,803 of the 173,641,060 active users subscribe to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services.

The GSM operators’ active customers figure reduced by 49,060 in April, after the 173,432,863 subscribers recorded in March 2019.

The report stated that out of the GSM operators, MTN had 64,732,167 users in April, showing a decrease of 302,448 from the 65,034,615 it recorded in March 2019.

Globacom’s figure increased in April by 117,053 with 46,380,756 customers, as against 46,203,703 in March.

Airtel had 45,433,300 subscribers in the month under review, which showed an increase of 194,965 users, from the 45,238,335 recorded in March.

9mobile recorded 16,720,146 customers in April, against 16,838,403 in March; having a decrease of 118,257 subscribers.

Visafone, which just migrated from the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to the GSM network had 117,434 subscribers in the month of April, showing a decrease of 373 from its March record of 117,807.

The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators recorded no subscriber in the month under review, indicating a decrease of 4,460 from the 4,460 users in March 2019.

The only surviving CDMA operator, Multi-Links, had 4,460 in March, but lost all the subscribers in April 2019.

The monthly subscriber/operator data showed that the Fixed Wireless network (landline) consumers reduced to zero in April, as against 26,865 recorded in March.

One of the two landline networks, Visafone had lost all 26,437 March subscribers in April, while Multi-Links also lost all its 428 customers in the month under review.

It also revealed that the Fixed Wired operators (landline) subscriber base increased by 879; increasing to 108,033 users in April, as against 107,154 recorded in March 2019.

In the Fixed Wired arena, MTN Fixed moved from 5,449 users in March 2019 to 5,373 users in April, thereby decreasing by 76 customers.

Glo Fixed had 3,842 users in April, increasing by 1,053 customers from the March record of 2,789.

IpNX network moved from 2,221 subscriber base in March 2019 to 2,237 in April, hence, its customers increased by 16.

The report indicated that 21st Century Network had 96,581 customers in April, recording a decrease of 114 users from its March record of 96,695 subscribers.

It also showed that the two Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) networks had 149,224 active users in April, as their customers increased by 6,724 from their March 2019 subscriber base of 142,500.

Of the VOIP networks, Smile Communication had 144,619 customers, giving an increase of 7,372 users to its March result of 137,247.

Ntel had 4,605 consumers subscribing to its products and services in April, showing a decrease of 648 users from the March 2019 record of 5,253.

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.