By Adedapo Adesanya
Active internet subscribers of mobile services, fixed wire and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) increased by 1.8 per cent to 149.8 million in August 2020 from 147.1 million in the previous month, the latest monthly industry statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows.
According to the industry statistics report, the mobile active internet subscribers increased to 149.3 million in August from 146.7 million in July. Internet subscription through fixed wire and VoIP also increased to 433,267 within the same month under review.
The report indicated that mobile subscribers for telephony service utilizing different mobile network operators increased to 203.2 million in the eight-month of the year from 198.9 million in the previous month.
Teledensity also increased to 106.6 per cent from 104.4 per cent recorded in the previous year. Teledensity is defined as the number of active telephone connections per one hundred (100) inhabitants living within an area.
Broadband penetration increased to 43.3 per cent in August, from 42.0 per cent in the previous month, while broadband subscription rose to 82.7 million.
On data subscription, the report showed that MTN added 1.6 million additional internet users to its network, bringing its total data subscribers to 63.9 million in August. This was followed by Airtel, which got 738,462 new subscribers into its fold of data customers, bringing its total to 39.8 million.
Globacom gained 231,341 new subscribers bringing its total to 38,5 million data subscribers while 9mobile has gained only 32,621 customers with a total of 7,170,308 customers in the country.
In terms of market share, among the four leading mobile networks, MTN maintained its leadership position in the market share with 40.9 per cent and a total of 83.1 million number of active subscribers in August 2020; Airtel recorded 26.9 per cent of market share and a total of 54.8 per cent active subscribers.
Globacom was third on the chart with 26.1 per cent market share and a total of 52.9 million subscribers while 9mobile had the lowest market share with 6.1 per cent and a total of 12.1 million number of subscribers in the country.
Aduragbemi Omiyale