MTN maintains momentum, leads Airtel, others in data subscription

Competition between two of Nigeria’s largest data sellers took different turns in 2019, as MTN recovered from the drop recorded in June and August, adding 8.18 million data subscribers by the end of December.

In a complete twist of events, at the end of December 2019, the total number of data subscribers on MTN data network rose to 54.11 million from 45.9 million it recorded in January, according to latest statistics by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) for the period ending December 2019

On the other hand, Airtel also recorded significant growth in the number of data subscribers in the year, adding 4.06 million data subscribers, taking the total number of data subscribers on the Airtel data network to 34.52 million from 30.4 million.

In terms of market share, Airtel continues to trail MTN, as the latter expanded its overall market share in 2019.

At the end of December 2019, MTN’s total data market share rose further to 68.8 million subscribers from 67.34 million subscribers recorded in November. On the other hand, Airtel’s number of subscribers rose to 50.18 million from 49.65 million recorded in the previous month. Hence, MTN now controls 37.30% of the market populace, as Airtel takes 27.20%.

Despite a challenging year for Globacom in terms of its data subscriber’s base, the telco still managed to add 1.81 million subscribers between January and December 2019. As reported earlier, 1.67 million internet subscribers dumped Globacom in November alone.

Meanwhile, in December 2019, Globacom recorded a significant rise as 1.61 million internet subscribers were added to the network. The total number of data subscribers on Glo network rose from 27.6 million data subscribers in January to 28.9 million subscribers as at December 2019.

On the other hand, 9mobile ended the year without attracting any data subscriber. According to the NCC data, 9mobile continues its steady decline, as a total of 1.81 million subscribers dumped the network for others. In November alone, 210,374 internet subscribers dumped the GSM company, a rise from 122,711 internet subscribers in October and 156,065 recorded in September.