Four telecommunications firms are currently keeping
Fixed wired telephone lines active in Nigeria. These
companies are MTN, Globacom, IpNX and 21st
Century.
Current industry statistics showed that 21st Century
controls the largest market share with 83 per cent
penetration.
The other three operators are far distance away, with
Globacom in second position having nine per cent
market share, followed by MTN, which has six per
cent, while ipNX services two per cent users in the
market.
Relying on data from the National Bureau of
Statistics, it was gathered that the total number of
fixed wired line subscriptions in March 2016 was
125,196, compared to 127,410 in December 2015
and 125,253 in March 2015.
The number however, fell both relative to the
previous quarter, by 1.74 per cent, and relative to
the previous year, by 0.05 per cent.
According to the statistics, though the number fell
each month from January through to March, the
biggest fall was in February, when the number fell
to 125,232, from 127,253 in January, a fall of 1.59
per cent.
It was observed that though the number of both
MTN Fixed and IpNX subscriptions fell, the fall was
largely a result of a decline in MTN Fixed
subscriptions, which fell by 23.09 per cent relative
to December 2015 and by 31.81 per cent relative to
March 2015. By contrast, IpNX subscriptions fell by
2.09 per cent and 1.14 per cent over the same
periods. As a result the share of each of these
providers fell.
MTN Fixed accounted for 5.98 per cent of
subscribers in March 2016, compared to 8.77 per
cent the previous year. IpNS accounted for 2.21 per
cent, marginally lower than the 2.23 per cent
accounted for the previous year.
The NBS data observed that in previous quarters
IpNX had exhibited a seasonal pattern in
subscription numbers – the only provider to do so
– but this was broken in the first quarter of 2016.
IpNX had exhibited a seasonal pattern in
subscription numbers – the only provider to do so
– but this was broken in the first quarter of 2016.
“For example in January and February in 2015 IpNX
subscribers fell by 5.74 per cent and 9.21 per cent,
before rebounding by 15.82 per cent in March, a
pattern characteristic of each quarter prior to 2016
Q1. In January and February 2016 however, IpNX
subscriptions fell by only 0.25 per cent and 1.10
per cent respectively, and fell by a further 0.75 per
cent in March.”
It further explained that 21st Century recorded
increases in the number of subscriptions over both
periods, increasing marginally by 0.06 per cent
relative to December 2015 and by 3.53 per cent
relative to March 2015.
Glo Fixed subscriptions changed very little over
either period, recording growth rates of 0.34 per
cent relative to December 2015 and -0.38 per cent
relative to March 2015. 21st century continued to
be by far the largest provider of fixed wired line
subscriptions, and at 82.42 per cent the share it
accounted for was higher than the March of the
previous year of 79.58 per cent.
The share of Glo Fixed declined slightly over the
same period, from 9.42 per cent to 9.39 per cent,
although it remained the second largest provider.
According to the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), the GSM technology controls
99.1 per cent, with the Code division Multiple
Access (CDMA) technology having 0.8 per cent,
while the fixed wired and wireless control 0.1 per
cent of Nigeria’s telephony market.
