Subscribers abandon MTN, port to Glo, Airtel

Latest data on subscriber base movement released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown that many subscribers have abandoned MTN for Glo and Airtel, especially internet customers.

According to the data seen by National Daily, Glo amassed new internet subscribers with 214,646 subscriptions to hit 40.32 million, while Airtel gained 149,880 to record 40.04 million subscriptions in the month.

An analysis of the data indicated that MTN, which is the largest operator by number of subscribers, lost 999,891 users, amounting to 65.5 million subscriptions in July. 9Mobile shed 246,221 to record 15.6 million subscriptions in the month.

On subscriber base proper, National Daily gathered that after suffering a decline in June, activities in July showed that volume of Internet users on mobile devices rebounded to 103.67 million in July as against 102.81 million recorded in June.

Glo led gainers with 574,821 new Internet users, increasing its subscription in July to 27.15 million from 26.57 million in June just as embattled 9mobile lost 218,086 Internet users in July, decreasing its subscription to 10.37 million as against June when it recorded 10.59 million.

Whereas Airtel rose with 375,724 new Internet users in July, amounting to 27.09 million users as against 26.71 million users in June, MTN also gained 134,197 new users in July as the figure recorded was 39.07 million as against 38.94 million in June.

Meanwhile, Spectranet led gainers as Code-division multiple access (CDMA) network grossed Internet users to about 66,210 in July, as against 30,309 users in June.

Recall that MTN is at the moment embroiled in the illegal repatriation of the sum of $8.1bn from Nigeria to South Africa.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had last week imposed heavy fines totalling N5.87bn on Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic-IBTC, Citibank and Diamond Bank under its regulatory purview for aiding the illegal funds repatriation.

It also directed the managements of the banks and MTN Nigeria Communications Limited to immediately refund to the apex bank $8,134,312,397.63, which was said to have been illegally repatriated by the company.