MTN Nigeria gains the most subscribers in August 2021, prompting a surge in SIM porting
MTN Nigeria gains the most subscribers in August 2021, prompting a surge in SIM porting
MTN, the Nigerian telecommunications behemoth, has gained the largest number of users who have switched from other network providers since the implementation of the sim porting mechanism in August. According to the most recent industry statistics provided by the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, the country's communications industry is booming (NCC).
Following the report's findings, MTN Nigeria gained 2,014 new subscribers in just one month. Airtel is in second place with 1,089 subscribers, followed by 9mobile with 244. In an interesting development, the number of users who switched from one network to another increased by more than 450 percent between July and September (734 to 3,327).
There has been a gradual increase in the rate of porting across the industry. After being shut down in conjunction with the NCC's sim registration ban, which was implemented to encourage citizens to link their National Identity Numbers (NIN) with their telephone numbers, the service suffered significantly. In order to avoid this, there were no sim ports available between January and May of 2021.
As reported by the Federal Communications Commission's industry statistics report, the total number of subscribers in August increased to 188,997, 799, an increase from the 187,470,860 recorded in July 2021. MTN continues to hold the largest market share in the country, accounting for approximately 38.7 percent of the total number of subscribers in the country, with approximately 73 million subscribers.
This is not surprising given MTN's long-standing position as the country's premier service provider. The company is the largest privately-owned mobile operator in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and it employs over 20,000 people worldwide.
What the other service providers are like in comparison
Globacom is the second-largest player in the industry, with a 27.5 percent share of the total subscriber pool.
This is in response to a significant increase in its GSM subscribers, who increased from 51,137,799 in May to 51,983,266 in the month of August, according to the company. A high capacity submarine fiber-optic cable, commonly referred to as Glo-1, was constructed by the company, making it the first single company to do so.
Airtel is in third place with 26.91 percent of the current GSM subscriber market share, just a hair behind Globacom and a full point ahead of MTN. Subscribers increased from 50,301,237 in July to 50,860,024 in August, according to the latest available data. There is no doubt that the company is significantly increasing its brand perception through a slew of relatable television commercials. In addition, the company has recently introduced a number of different data plans.
With a current market share of approximately 6.8 percent of GSM subscribers, 9mobile is lagging behind the competition in Nigeria's GSM operations. In the current GSM network, the company has only about 13 million subscribers, and 1,716 of those users are switching their phone numbers to other service providers.
According to the most recent internet statistics for the month of August, this is the largest.
Contributions from the telecommunications industry
According to the National Communications Commission's industry statistics, the telecommunications industry contributed a significant 14.42 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2021, representing a significant increase of 2.76 percent from the first quarter of the same year.
Given the constant adoption of telecommunications and the increase in internet usage in the country that has been noticeable for the past couple of years, the figures are likely to be accurate.
