The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says active users of telecommunications services in the country increased to 153,949,450 in November 2016.
The telecommunications industry regulator gave the figure in its Monthly Subscriber/Operator Data, obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
It said that the active telecommunications service customers increased by 435,343 in November over their October number of 153,514,107.
According to the data, 153,547,164 of the 153,949,450 active numbers subscribed to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services.
The GSM operators’ active customers increased by 460,454 on the October number of 153,086,710 subscribers.
The report stated that of the GSM operators, MTN had 61,280,293 users in November, an increase of 297,806 on the October figure of 60,982,487 subscribers.
Globacom’s figure increased in November by 150,491, giving a total of 37,268,483 customers, as against 37,117,992 recorded in October.
Airtel had 33,376,556 subscribers in the month under review, which was an increase of 600,640 on the October figure of 32,775,916.
Etisalat, however, recorded a reduction in customers by 588,483, giving a customer base of 21,621,832 compared to 22,210,315 users recorded in October.
The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators had 217,566 active users in November, showing a decrease of 26,865 from 244,477 customers they had in October.
Between the two surviving CDMA service providers, Visafone’s customers reduced to 213,106 in November, as it lost 26,911 users from the October record of 240,017, while Multi-Links maintained 4,460 customers in November.
The monthly subscriber/operator data showed that the Fixed Wireless network’s (landline) consumers decreased to 26,865 in November, as they lost 77 customers from their record of 26,942 in October.
Also, between the two Fixed Wireless operators, Visafone had 26,437 subscribers in November, losing 77 users from the October record of 26,514; while Multi-Links maintained its October record of 428 customers.
The record also indicated that the Fixed Wired operators (landline) subscriber base reduced by 99, giving a total of 124,713 users in November, as against 124,812 recorded in October.
In the Fixed Wired area, MTN Fixed moved from 5,842 in October to 5,697 in November, thereby reducing by 145 users; Glo Fixed had 12,586 users in November, adding 72 customers to the October record of 12,514.
IpNX network moved from 2,539 subscriber base in October to 2,480 in November, reducing its customers by 59 in November.
It said that 21st Century network had 103,950 customers in November, recording an increase of 33 users on its October record of 103,917.
The report also showed that Smile Communications, the only operator on the Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) network had 33,142 active users in November, as it added 1,976 customers to its October subscriber base of 31,166.
The regulatory body said that Section 89 Subsection 3(c) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 mandated it to monitor and report the state of telecommunications industry.
“The commission is mandated to provide statistical analysis and identify industry trends with regard to services, tariffs, operators, technology, subscribers, issues of competition and dominance.
“’This is with a view to identifying areas where regulatory intervention will be needed.
“The commission regularly conducts studies, surveys and produces reports on the telecommunications industry.
“Therefore, telecommunications operators are obligated, under the terms of the licenses, to provide NCC with such data on a regular basis for analytical review and publishing,” the report said. (NAN)