Connected phone lines hit 192m, 51m inactive

The total number of telephone lines currently connected on mobile networks in Nigeria has increased from 188.8 in the last quarter 2014 to 192.1 million, according to the latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The official industry data which is available on the telecoms regulator’s website indicated that the figure represents the total number of connected lines across all networks as at the end of January, 2015.

According to the statistics, additional 3.3 million lines were connected in January alone on all the networks, including the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and fixed lines networks in the country.

Breakdown of the data indicated that out of 192.1 million connected lines, 187.9 added to GSM networks, 3.7 million for CDMA operators, while only 365,753 were on fixed wired/ wireless lines.

The report also shows that of the 192.1 million connected telephone lines, only 140.8 million lines were active, leaving 51.3 million lines inactive.

GSM networks, which are MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat have 138.5 million active lines on their networks, while CDMA networks and fixed line operators control 2.1 million and 182,693 respectively.

Meanwhile, teledensity in the nation’s telecoms sector has reached 100.59 per cent, suggesting a significant growth in mobile subscriptions in 14 years after the liberalisation of the nation’s telecoms sector.

Analysis of the NCC subscriber status report further shows that GSM companies were the category of players in the industry with predominance subscriber base

According to the data, GSM companies currently control 98.37 per cent of the total 140.1 million active subscriber base in the country while CDMA and fixed line operators have 1.50 per cent and 0.13 per cent respectively.

The figures show that MTN leads with 60.4 million subscribers, representing 44 per cent of the mobile market; Globacom comes second with 28.4 active subscribers (21 per cent) while Airtel comes third with 27.9 active subscribers base (20 per cent) and Etisalat comes fourth with 21.5 subscriber base representing 15 per cent market share.