MTN and Airtel lead the chart as Nigeria’s internet subscriptions increased by a total of 2.5 million, according to data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
Despite losing a total of 13.8 million internet subscriptions between January to May last year due to the government’s suspension of SIM registration and activation between December 2020 and April 2021, the telecom operators in the industry have risen above the challenge to gain a remarkable ground, with mobile network operators taking the lead.
Earlier records as of December 2020 showed that subscriptions across all the networks in the country stood at 154.3 million. In March 2022, this reduced to 145.5 million. Now, in April 2022, total subscriptions increased by N2.5 million to stand at 148 million.
According to NCC’s data, mobile network operators MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile maintained the market lead with 147.4 million subscriptions. VoIP operators, Smile Communications and Ntel came after with 349,742 internet subscriptions, while 14,412 were on fixed wired networks – 21st Century and iPNX.
Broadband subscriptions, that is, high-speed internet service also rose to 81.6 million in April from 80.6 million recorded in March this year. This brought the country’s broadband penetration to 42.79%.
MTN Nigeria, the largest operator by subscriber number, maintained its leadership position as it gained 1.1 million new internet subscriptions in April. This brought its total internet subscription database to 61.8 million.
Airtel overtook Globacom in the month to become the second-largest operator in terms of internet subscriptions. The company recorded additional 918,191 internet subscriptions in April, which brought its total internet customers to 40.2 million.
Globacom also gained new subscriptions in the month as it added 331,360 internet customers in the month. At the end of April, its internet subscriptions database stood at 39.8 million.
However, 9mobile’s internet subscription declined in the month. The telecom operator lost 107,617 subscriptions, which brought its internet customer database to 5.4 million at the end of April.
