November was good for Airtel, Glo and even 9mobile
Active telco service subscriptions to the mobile networks of MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile rose to 218.6 million in November 2022, according to the latest figures from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The increase was driven largely by MTN Nigeria, which recorded the highest gain of 3.1 million subscriptions in November 2022. The 4 GSM operators recorded a combined 4.2 million increase in subscriptions in November as the country’s active mobile subscription database stood at 214.3 million in October, reported Nigerian analyst Nairametrics.
Teledensity growth
The data showed the country’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, also jumped from 112.47% in October to 114.07% in November 2022. According to NCC, the teledensity is calculated based on a population estimate of 190 million.
Telco stats
The NCC’s statistics show that the operator with most subscribers, MTN, gained 3.1 million new subscriptions in November. This brought its total active customer database to 86.4 million from the 83.2 million it recorded in October. Meanwhile Airtel Nigeria added 713,865 new subscriptions but the gain was not enough to displace Glo from second position. Airtel’s active customer database rose from 58.6 million in October to 59.3 million at the end of November.
Glo with the flow
However Glo just did enough to stay ahead, recording a 312,274 increase in subscriptions in the month to maintain its position as the second-largest operator. The new activations on the network brought Glo’s total subscriptions to 59.9 million from the 59.6 million it recorded in October. In last place 9mobile had the consolation of arresting its losing streak as it gained new subscriptions for the first time in several months. The company’s subscriptions database increased by 69,812 to 12.8 in the month under review.
Is MTN network slowing?
MTN customer Idowu Akintunde said that while his supplier is ‘gaining weight’ the word among the customer base MTN service levels are ‘dropping’, in terms of internet network speeds in comparison with Airtel. “My appeal to MTN is to check the slow internet of their network. I Subscribed for 3 MTN’s and the three are performing slowly despite upgrading” said Akintunde.