By Audrey Lotechukwu
FRI 11 JUNE, 2021-theGBJournal- Telecoms companies in Nigeria witnessed a very significant drop off in the number of active voice and internet subscribers from their networks in Q1 2021. Critics say the drop highlights the impact of the Federal Government’s enforcement of the National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card registration.
The latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Telecoms Data: Active Voice and Internet per State, Porting and Tariff Information for Q1 2021 shows that the number of active voice subscribers fell as much as 5.96% Q-on-Q in the period, from 204,601,313 in Q4 2020 to 192,413,613.
Similarly, a total of 144,949,194 subscribers were active on the internet as against 154,301,195 in Q4 2020. This represented a -6.06% decrease in internet subscriptions QoQ.
The NBS report shows that Lagos State has the highest number of subscribers in terms of active voice per State in Q1 2021 but the data reflects fewer number of active subscribers as active Voice in Q1, 2021- (Mobile (GSM) All Network- dropped to 23,247,293 compared to 24,880,677 in Q4, 2020.
The drop also is replicated in Ogun and Kano States respectively with high number of users. Bayelsa and Ebonyi States have the least number of subscribers.
Similarly, Lagos State has the highest number of subscribers in terms of active internet per State in Q1 2021 and is closely followed by Ogun and Kano States respectively while Bayelsa and Ebonyi States have the least number of subscribers. The data shows that in each of these states fewer subscribers were active voice users or internet subscribers.
MTN has the highest share of subscriptions. However the telecoms giant lost 5.99% Q-on-Q of active voice users, from 80,764,128 down to 75,927,231 in Q1 2021. Similarly, active internet subscribers dipped 5.79% Q-on-Q from 65,359,306 in Q4 2020 down to 61,575,323 in Q12021.
GLO, the next big competitor lost 3.50% active voice subscribers in Q1 2021 down from 54,840,192 in Q42020 to 52,918,718 in Q12021. It also witnessed a 3.24% in the number of internet subscribers.
AIRTEL witnessed a exceptional drop of 8.50% in the number of internet subscribers from its network and another 9.45% in active voice subscribers
But while all the networks witnessed a significant drop off in the number of active voice and internet users, the NBS data shows that none experienced porting activities during the period.
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