Telecom Subscribers Spend N335.94Bn on Calls, SMS, Data in May
TELECOMMUNICATIONS consumers spent some N335.94 billion in May, according to findings by Business A.M.
In arriving at the figures, Business A.M, estimated that each active telephone line averagely spent N1, 747.26 ($4.50) during the month.
Similarly, total active telephone lines in the country increased to 192.27 million in May, rising by additional 1.46 million lines from April’s record of 190.81 million, according to the latest industry statistics obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
As active subscriptions increased, so also did the Average Revenue per User (ARPU), which is a measure used primarily by consumer communications, digital media, and networking companies, as the total revenue divided by the number of subscribers.
The upward movement has been observed in two consecutive quarters as ARPU went up by 20 per cent to hit $4.25 in Q1, 2020 from $3.87 in Q4 of 2019; and sustained to settle at $4.50 in Q2, 2020.
This is in contrast to the conventional trend whereby rise in the number of active lines often distributes estimated revenue to total subscriptions and thus trigger contraction in ARPU.
Recall that industry observers had earlier projected increase in revenue for telecoms operators as lockdown and social distancing employed as preventive measures for COVID-19 have kept people at home and forced enterprises to divert operations and activities to the virtual space, resulting in more reliance on data and telephony in its entirety.
This has been supported by disclosure by Muahamed Rudman, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Internet Exchange Point (iXPN) who reported more than 10 per cent in internet traffic less than two weeks into lockdown in Nigeria.
As this development seems to ignite insinuations that operators are cashing in big on the development and that active telephone lines are rising, industry experts have been quick to call for a critical digestion of the figures.
Olusola Teniola, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), has cautioned that the figures must not be celebrated yet, hinting that the observed rise in revenue is claimed by just a few operators, leaving the majority of other telecoms players on the other side of the divide.
He noted that only the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) consisting of MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9Mobile and just a few others have their operations immune to the pandemic.
He said there are many other ATCON members who provide enterprise solutions for companies that are now under locks, and thus losing money to the lull on a daily basis.
He said: “We have to note that obviously, the industry is not just made up of the MNOs alone, there are other players in the market that have had to demonstrate negative numbers
“Negative numbers in the sense that, during the lockdown, employees of enterprises and businesses have stayed at home naturally. So, there have been no services to these enterprises by our members. So we can say this contributed to the change in consumer behaviour in terms of internet usage.
“However, as these slightly uplifted the numbers, they do not compensate for the losses in voice and they do not compensate for the losses in the enterprise segment of the market,” Teniola explained.