Telcos Add 10m Phone Lines in 11 Months

Mobile network operators activated a total of 10 million lines between January and November of the year, according to the latest statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The new lines brought the number of active subscriptions across the MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile networks to 182.4 million from 172.4 million recorded at the end of 2018.

Analysis of the industry data showed that Globacom gained the largest number of new subscriptions for the period.

According to NCC, the telco added 5.8 million subscriptions in the period, pushing its active subscriber base to 51.1 million.

Airtel also recorded 5.4 million new subscriptions within the period, which shot its subscriptions to 49.6 million.

MTN, which maintained its number one spot as the largest network by subscriber base with 67.3 million subscriptions, activated 215,849 new lines within the period.

However, while other telcos gained new subscriptions in the period, 9mobile recorded a 1.7 million decrease in subscriptions, which brought its customer base to 14.1 million from 15.9 million it had at the end of 2018.

Going by the country’s estimated population of 190 million, the 182.4 million active subscriptions would mean that almost every Nigerian now has a mobile line. Based on this, NCC also put Nigeria’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, at 95.71 per cent.