*MTN, Airtel, Glo highest losers
Nigeria’s active data subscriber base dropped by 3.3 percent in second quarter, Q2, 2021, representing a loss of 4.76 million users, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC. has said
This was contained in the commission’s latest industry review for the quarter as published on its website.
Nigeria’s telecommunications industry is dominated by four major telecoms, MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile.
During the period under review, the total internet service subscriber base from the four major operators decreased three months consecutively, ending Q2 with 139.81 million, against the 144.58 it ended Q1 with and 1.5 percent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, about 3.52 million data subscribers migrated from MTN and Airtel in the second quarter of 2021 between April to June.
A breakdown of the telecoms data users’ performance for Q2 2021 indicates that MTN Nigeria was the highest loser during the second quarter of 2021, losing 1.98 million in total, as its subscriber base declined for three months consecutive, to end June with 59.59 million users, below the 61.57 million it started April with.
The operator recorded its largest loss during the period under review, as 1.12 million customers stopped using the network’s service, in May; the loss dropped to 243,203 subscribers, and 607,511 was wiped off in June.
For Airtel Nigeria, about 1.54 million users abandoned the network between April to June this year, pushing firm further away from its closest rival Globacom.
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It recorded 36.23 million data subscribers in June, which fell from 37.77 million, which it recorded in April, as 115,462 internet users were lost in the former, and 751,457 gained in the latter, however, it lost 906,669 in May.
Globacom on its part lost 932,250 data subscribers in the entire second quarter in review, as dropping from April’s opener of 38.80 million users to 37.87 million customers at the end of June.
According to the report, Globacom lost 1.09 million data users in April, and lost 118,730 subscribers in May before gaining 283,766 customers in June this year.
The company recorded the lowest loss based on the size of its total subscriber, which ended at 6.10 million in June, failing to surpass the 6.14 million it started Q2 with.
Similarly, 9mobile lost a total of 310,767 subscribers within the three months period under review, as April, May and June accounted for 195,241, 6,594, 108,932 data users losses respectively.
Teldensity
For the teledensity, the sector which recorded 187,026,517 active subscribers for telecom services in May (97.98%) under the GSM, a decline from 188,705,734 (98.86%) in April showed a consistent increase of 187,611,501 (98.28%) in June also showed further increase of 187,805,237, representing 98.39% of the country’s population.
Porting
For porting, there was no record of porting in the whole of April and May but in June, a total of 616 subscribers ported. Of this number, 65 ported from Mtn to other networks and 360 ported from Aitel, 191 ported from 9mobile network, while Glo did not record any.
In July, a total of 734 subscribers ported in the month, in which Airtel recorded 543 subscribers that ported and 9mobile also recorded 191 porting activities, while Mtn and Glo recorded none in the month.