MTN, Airtel maintain dominance as internet subscriptions hit 159.5m

Mobile network operators MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile maintained their dominance of the internet market in Nigeria as active subscriptions for internet across mobile, fixed and VOIP networks rose to 159.5 million in May 2023.

According to the latest industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), this represents an 8.6 per cent growth when compared with the 158.2 million recorded in April.

The NCC’s data reveals that MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile accounted for 159 million subscriptions, while VOIP operators, which include Smile Communications and Ntel accounted for 335,121 internet subscriptions as of May, and other internet service providers (ISPs) accounted for 204,810 internet subscriptions.

Meanwhile, after 2 months of consistent decline, subscriptions to high-speed internet services, otherwise known as broadband, increased in May to 92.2 million from 91.8 million recorded in April. This brought the country’s broadband penetration to 48.28 per cent from 48.14 per cent in April.

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Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC Prof. Umar Danbatta, recently declared that the Commission would be providing industry leadership to push broadband penetration in the country to well above 50 per cent by the end of this year.

According to him, the Commission would also ensure that Nigeria achieves 90 per cent broadband coverage and 70 per cent penetration by the year 2025 in line with the National Broadband Policy.

He, however, pointed out that the country would also need to attract more investments in infrastructure to bring these targets to reality.

Amidst the implementation of the country’s broadband plan, which started in 2020, subscriptions had declined steadily at some points for months as a result of the government’s policy on SIM cards.

From a peak point of 45.93% in October 2020, broadband penetration in Nigeria slipped to 39.79% in July 2021.

Between November 2020 and October 2021, the service providers lost a total of 9.9 million broadband subscriptions.