Nigeria’s Mobile Internet Subscription Drops By 563,837

Nigeria’s mobile internet subscribers decreased by 563,837 in December, with the total number of Internet users dropping to 153.87 million from 154.43 million in November 2020.

Latest figures from the Nigerian Communications Commission also showed that broadband subscription fell by 0.12 per cent, from 86 million in November to 85.9 million in December.

The NCC mobile Internet subscriber data revealed that MTN’s mobile Internet subscriber base reduced the most to 65.35 million in December from 65.76 million in November, losing 408,444 subscribers.

Airtel, which had 41.52 million Internet subscribers in November, lost 236,306 subscribers, recording a total of 41.28 million users in December.

9mobile’s Internet subscribers declined from 7.23 million in November to 7.12 million in December, losing 119,547 mobile Internet users in one month.

On the other hand, the data showed that Globacom had 39.90 million Internet subscribers in November but recorded 40.10 million users by the end of December, thereby gaining 200,460 new users.

The number of subscribers to Nigeria’s mobile telecommunications services also reduced to 204.22 million in December.

The industry statistics showed that the telcos lost 3.3 million active subscribers in one month as the industry had recorded 207.53 million users in November.

The data showed that Airtel lost the highest number of subscribers in December, dropping by 1.58 million subscribers from 57.23 million subscribers in November to 55.64 million customers.

MTN followed, losing 1.26 million subscribers in December and dropping to 80.76 million mobile phone users from 82.02 million consumers in November.

Globacom lost 249,194 subscribers in December, recording a total of 54.84 million subscribers as against 55.08 million GSM users in November.

While 9mobile, which had 13.18 million users in November, lost 205,910 subscribers in December with a total of 12.98 million users.

The NCC December report indicated that MTN remained Nigeria’s largest mobile network operator with 39.55 per cent market share. Airtel is the country’s second largest operator with 27.25 per cent.

Globacom clinched the third spot at 26.85 per cent, while 9mobile remained the fourth operator at 6.36 per cent market share.

The nation’s teledensity lost 1.74 per cent, falling from 108.92 per cent to 107.18 per cent in December 2020.