Telephone subscribers: MTN retains highest market share

By Odunewu Segun

Out of the total 162,522,772 voice subscribers in the second quarter of 2018, MTN has the highest share of 40.8% with 66,453,318 subscribers, latest telephone date released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the second quarter of 2018 has revealed.

According to the data, Glo is second with 39,885,471 representing 24.54% share while Airtel controls 24.51% of the subscribers’ base with 39,730,320 active subscribers. 9mobile is fourth (16,006,007) with a share of 9.8% while other voice operators (Non-GSM) has 447,654 voice subscribers.

Likewise, the highest share of total internet subscribers in Q2 2018 belonged to MTN with 39,191,085 active subscribers, followed by Glo with active 27,206,445 subscribers. Airtel and 9mobile are third and fourth with 27,206,445 and 10,807,862 internet subscribers respectively. A total of 362,271 subscribed for internet through other operators in the second quarter of 2018.

The NBS report shows that 9mobile has the highest number of cumulative port-in during the period under review with 5,317 subscribers. MTN is second with 5,273 port-in subscribers while 4,547 subscribers ported-in to Airtel, during the period. Glo has the least port-in subscribers of 3,079 in Q2 2018.

Meanwhile, Airtel lost the highest number of subscribers to porting activities, in the same period with 5,833 port-outs, followed by Glo with 5,443 subscribers.  9mobile lost 5,155 subscribers to porting activities while MTN was least hit with 3,388 port-out subscribers in the second quarter of 2018.

According to the NBS report, Lagos State has the highest numbers of subscribers in the second quarter of 2018 with 21,281,072 voice subscribers from 19,453,437 in Q1 2018. Ogun and Kano States closely followed in that order with 9,857,468 and 8,477,042 subscribers respectively. Bayelsa and Ebonyi States have the least number of active voice subscribers in Nigeria, in Q1 2018 with 1,102,635 and 1,426,145 subscribers respectively.

Also, the report shows that Lagos State has the highest number of subscribers in terms of active internet users per state during the period under review, with a total of 14,322,982 subscribers. Ogun State has the second highest number of internet subscribers (6,563,625) while FCT is third with 5,451,037 subscribers. Bayelsa State emerged as the state with the least number of internet subscribers in Nigeria, in the second quarter of 2018 (743,643), followed by Ebony with 842,099 internet users.