Nigeria Mobile Subscribers Hit 113 Million Amidst Poor Services

In spite of persistent poor service quality, Nigeria’s telecoms subscriber numbers continue to grow exponentially. According to latest figures released by the regulator of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), active telephone lines crossed the 113 million active lines as December 2012 figures hit 113,195,951, up from 110,348,131 in November 2012.

The market statistics also showed that a growing number of Nigerians now have access to telecoms services as operators seem to have extended their reach across the nooks and crannies of the country leading to telephone density (teledensity)  peaking at 80.85. Teledensity is the number of phone connections for every hundred persons within the population.

The new figures also show that not much has changed fundamentally in the balance of game among the operators as the global system for mobile (GSM) communication  sector controls over 95 per cent of the overall telecoms market by subscriber numbers as 113, 195,951 active connections were recorded at the end of last year.

MTN Nigeria, Glo Mobile, Airtel Nigeria and Etisalat Nigeria still rule the market. They share 108,570, 703 active lines within the period under review.

In the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) sub-sector, Visafone is leading and it is fifth operator by subscriber numbers and a leader in the CDMA market, with a combined active lines total of 2,294,426 on its mobile CDMA and fixed wireless networks at the end of last year.