By Abubakar Yunusa
Subscriptions for internet across mobile, fixed, and VoIP networks in the country increased to 148 million in April this year.
The latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals that telecom operators recorded a total of 2.5 million new subscriptions in the month to achieve the new height.
As of March 2022, internet subscriptions in the country stood at 145.5 million.
The NCC’s data shows that the mobile network operators MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile maintained their dominance of the internet market with 147.4 million subscriptions. VoIP operators Smile Communications and Ntel accounted for 349,742 internet subscriptions, while 14,412 were on fixed wired networks – 21st Century and iPNX.
Broadband subscriptions, that is, high-speed internet service also rose to 81.6 million in April from 80.6 million recorded in March this year. This brought the country’s broadband penetration to 42.79%.
What each operator gained in April MTN Nigeria, the largest operator by subscriber number, maintained its leadership position as it gained 1.1 million new internet subscriptions in April. This brought its total internet subscription database to 61.8 million.
Airtel overtook Globacom in the month to become the second-largest operator in terms of internet subscriptions. The company recorded additional 918,191 internet subscriptions in April, which brought its total internet customers to 40.2 million.
Globacom also gained new subscriptions in the month as it added 331,360 internet customers in the month. At the end of April, its internet subscriptions database stood at 39.8 million.
However, 9mobile’s internet subscription declined in the month. The telecom operator lost 107,617 subscriptions, which brought its internet customer database to 5.4 million at the end of April.
As of December 2020, active internet subscriptions across all the networks in the country stood at 154.3 million.
The operators had recorded a significant drop in internet subscriptions last year due to the government’s suspension of SIM registration and activation between December 2020 and April 2021.
Between January and May last year, the country had lost a total of 13.8 million internet subscriptions.
