9mobile gained 444,903 active mobile subscribers in the month of April. This is the mobile operator’s first gain in subscriber in over a year, according to the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) recently released industry stats.
The total number of GSM subscribers stood at 190,475,494 in April, indicating an increase of about 1.48 million from the number of subscribers recorded in the previous month.
MTN remained the highest gainers, adding about 1 million active subscribers to bring its total number of subscribers in the country to 74,673,648. This is 39.2% of the total number of subscribers in the country.
Airtel and Globacom both lost subscribers. Airtel lost 40,496 subscribers to drop to a total amount of 51,258,382 subscribers. Globacom lost 17,824 subscribers to have a total of 51,838,290 subscribers.
Visafone subscribers remained unchanged from 137,086 subscribers recorded in February and March.
Over 138 million Internet Subscribers
NCC pegged the total amount of internet subscribers in the country at 138,342,770 in April. This is about 2.51 million increase from the number of subscribers recorded in March.
Glo remained the top internet gainer, amassing about 2 million new internet subscribers to bring its total to 35,943,825. MTN followed with a gain of about 698,000 internet subscribers while Airtel added just 41,801 subscribers.
Market leader, MTN now has 57,342,770 million internet subscribers while Airtel follows with 36,869,468
Similar to last month, 9mobile lost 302,125 internet subscribers in April. This brings its total internet subscribers to 7,762,068.
However, 9mobile retained its crown as the most favourable network for porters as 3,829 users joined the network from other operators. Airtel follows with about 2,246 incoming subscribers while MTN and Globacom added just 985 and 88 respectively.
On the other end, Airtel led the chart of outgoing subscribers as 3,115 subscribers ported from the mobile operator. Globacom follows with 1,587 subscribers lost while MTN also lost 946 subscribers. 9mobile was the least with just 449 subscribers lost.
Bandwith Penetration
Broadband penetration in the country dropped to 39.58% in April, losing 0.32% in a month. The number of 3G and 4G subscribers dropped from 76,163,674 in March to 75,558,163 subscribers in April.
In summary, the report shows that 9mobile is slowly plotting it’s way back with its first increase in over year. With the recent appointment Alan Sinfield as its new CEO, the telco could leverage on the positives of April to forge ahead.
The report also showed a reduction in porting activities in April and a minute setback in the NCC broadband penetration as it fell for the first time since the beginning of the year.
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