GSM users hit 203 million, MTN, Airtel lead growth

MTN and Airtel are the biggest gainers of new mobile phone subscriptions in August, the latest monthly subscribers’ data from the Nigerian Communications Commission have shown

This is as the mobile phone subscribers’ base rose to 203.16 million in August from 198.96 million in July.

From July to August, MTN gained 2.73 million new mobile phone subscriptions, while Airtel followed with an addition of 1.06 million new phone users in one month.

The NCC mobile phone subscriber’s data showed that in one month, 9mobile added 214,282 new users to its network.

Globacom, during the period under review, added 192,327 new GSM customers to its network.

Further analysis of the data indicated that the country gained a total of 4.2 million new mobile phone subscriptions during the period under review.

MTN had 83.08 million mobile phone users in July and recorded 80.35 million users by the end of August.

Airtel, which had 54.77 million GSM users in July, gained 1.06 million new ones to record 53.71 million in August while Globacom’s mobile phone subscriber base grew to 52.93 million in August from 52.74 million in July.

The NCC data showed that 9mobile’s mobile phone subscribers increased from 12.16 million in July to 12.38 million in August, adding 214,282 mobile phone users to its network.

Also, the report showed that MTN added 1.6 million new Internet users to its network in August to reach 63.89 million from 62.29 million in July.

Airtel also came second in terms of Internet customers as it added 738,462 new subscriptions, which brought its customer base to 39.8 million in August from 39.05 million in July.

Globacom added 231,341 new Internet subscriptions in the month under review, which brought the telco’s total Internet customers to 38.49 million from 38.26 million in July.

9mobile maintained the fourth position as it gained 32,621 new Internet users in August to record a total of 7.17 million, up from 7.14 million in July.

SOURCE