Nigeria’s subscriber base hits 94 million, as 43.7 per cent still need telephone services

Posted by Mgbenka at Sunday, February 26, 2012 |

STATISTICS from the Nigerian Communications Commission has revealed a rise in Nigeria’s subscribers base, that presently stands at ninety four million.

However, consultants within the business believed strongly that the particular range of subscribers would be determined when the Commission finished the collation of knowledge within the on-going Subscribers Identification Modules exercise, that was done by each the NCC and therefore the operators.

As such, the newest NCC’s business statistics for October 2011 revealed that the country recorded further zero.5 per cent subscriber base growth or 463, 680 lines month-on-month in that month.

According to the statistics, the GSM active lines stands at eighty eight million, Code Division Multiple Access operator has five.2 million, whereas the fastened wireless operators declined from 828,797 subscribers in September 2011 to 801, 297 in October.

Furthermore, telecoms operators within the last ten years have raised the subscriber base from its four hundred, 000 lines in 2011 to this ninety three.9 million active subscribers representing fifty three.3 per cent of the overall population, given this estimate of the country’s population place at 167 by the National Population Commission.

Going by that, it shows that solely fifty three.3 per cent of Nigerians have access to phonephone services, whereas seventy three million Nigerians representing forty three.7 per cent are however to be supplied with telephony access by the operators.

This disparity is boosted by the invention by MTN Nigeria in early 2011 that concerning 850 villages within the country are however to possess access to basic telephony services.

The seventy three million Nigerians, who are however to possess access to telephony services resides principally within the rural, semi-rural areas where they're either not served or are underserved by phonephone operators with telecoms services.

But to consultants, these seventy three million underserved and unserved presents a large market chance to be tapped into by the telecoms firms by channelling their infrastructure investment to the agricultural areas where basic telephony/voice service still remains a craving demand by the agricultural dwellers.

Only recently, former government Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe reiterated the requirement to bridge the digital gap within the country, stressing that whereas the operator remains terribly autonomous, a lot of investments are required to expand telecommunications services within the country.

But to the President of the Association of Telecommunications firms of Nigeria, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, subscriber base ought to be interpreted because the total range of Subscriber Identity Module within the country and not the overall range of Nigerians connected.