NCC report shows active internet subscriptions hit 149.8m in August

THE TOTAL NUM BER OF ACTIVE internet subscriptions in Nigeria grew considerably in the month of August, adding 2,623,929 new subscriptions to hit 149,772,236, according to data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The NCC data obtained by Business A.M., show active internet subscriptions in the country rose from 147,148,307 in July to 149,772,236 in August. The number of active internet subscriptions has grown steadily month on month since the beginning of the year.

In terms of the technology driving internet subscriptions in the country, GSM is the faraway leader with as much as 149,338,969 active subscriptions in August. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) comes next with 422,433 active subscriptions in August, while Fixed Wired subscriptions for the same period were 10,834 active subscriptions. CDMA continues to be largely ignored not accounting for any of the active internet subscriptions in the country.

The number of active internet subscriptions in a country is an important statistic to track as the growth in internet subscriptions helps drive socio-economic growth.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian broadband sector has seen a corresponding significant growth. According to statistics made available by the NCC, the broadband sector added about two million new broadband subscriptions, growing from 80.216 million subscribers in July to 82.653 million subscriptions in August, meaning that Nigeria’s broadband penetration saw a 1.28 per cent growth, rising from 42.02 per cent in July to 43.30 per cent in August.