Mobile Phone Users In Nigeria Increases By 155m In January.

The total number of active mobile lines on telecoms networks in Nigeria has increased to over 155 million in January, this year, the latest industry report released by the telecoms regulator has revealed.

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in the new report, telecoms networks, mostly the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators attracted new 535, 032 subscribers in January.

As of December last year, active subscriptions on GSM, Code Division Multiple Access, fixed line platform and voice over Internet Protocol lines stood at 154,529,780 and teledensity at 110.38 per cent.

From this figure, GSM operators including MTN, Globacom, Airtel and others had 154,124,602 while CDMA, fixed networks and VoIP had 217,566; 154,513 and 33,099 respectively.

Also in the January figure, trend in the industry in terms of mobile subscriptions don’t seem to have changed.

According to the NCC report, from the 155,064,812 lines, GSM had 154,660,446 while CDMA network had just 217,566 active phone lines.

Fixed wired/wireless networks recorded 151,088; VoIP subscriptions were 35,712 while teledensity stood at 110.76 per cent.

According to industry analysts, the current active lines’ figure of 155 million is the highest of subscriber base ever recorded by the operating companies.

As of November 2015, the telecoms industry players recorded stood at 152.1 million, the highest subscriber base ever recorded in the country.

However, with the over N1.04 trillion imposed on MTN line with a directive to deactivate over 5.2 million unregistered lines, the industry started witnessing a slump in consistently till June, 2016.

For instance, in December 2015 through January 2016, total industry subscribers hovered at 151 million.

By February 2016, it fell to 148. 6 million and slightly peaked at 148.7 million by March while in sank further to 147.5 million in April.

However, it started picking up again from May, June and July, as total active mobile subscriptions rose steadily to 148.8 million; 149.8 million and 150.2 million respectively.

The growth was sustained by the industry as August and September also witnessed strong growth from 152.8 million to 153.3 million in that order.

By October, November and December 2016, the figures were 153.5 million; 153.9 million and 154.5 million respectively.