More Nigerians, who chose to remain on the network of the code division multiple access (CDMA) players, have finally decided to abandon the networks, a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown.
According to the data obtained, from 2.148 million last December, active subscriptions on CDMA networks, have decline consistently to 1.170 million at the end of March this year. Last January, the figure fell to 2.1479 million and 2.1473 million in February.
Though, MTN has acquired Visafone, the only surviving CDMA network in the country, late last year, the acquisition has not renewed subscribers’ confidence to remain on Visafone network.
Already, MTN has said the primary motivation for its acquisition of Visafone was to obtain the 800Mhz spectrum frequency of the country’s only surviving Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operator, to offer Long Term Evolution services (LTE) and not to grow the voice subscriptions on Visafone. LTE is the 4G technology platform that offers very high-speed Internet delivery to telecoms consumers above what 2G and 3G services currently offer in the market.
Already, MTN Nigeria has disclosed ongoing plans to roll out commercial Long Term Evolution (LTE) services by third quarter.
MTN said the primary motivation for acquiring Visafone was to gain across to the LTE frequency.
However, the market share of licensees in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) segment of the nation’s telecoms industry has further increased to 99.1 per cent.
According to the latest data from the telecoms operators, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), GSM share of market has grown from less than 98 per cent to reach 99.1 per cent at the end of first quarter.
The GSM networks including MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, only made entry into the nation’s economy in from 2001 and have conquered the market ostensibly because of their innovations, technology and impressive financial muscles.
However, early entrants, many of whom are in the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and fixed line segments, have consistently witnessed dwindling fortunes.
In the latest report, NCC disclosed that the CDMA share of the market now stands at 0.8 per cent, while the fixed networks are holding on to abysmal 0.1 per cent market share.
Of the total active subscriptions of 148.74 million currently on all mobile networks, the GSM operators poll 147.39 million, while CDMA and fixed line networks have 1.17 million and 176,579 respectively.
Among the GSM operators, MTN witnessed a loss of market share from 42 per cent to 39 per cent; Airtel and Glo tie at 23 per cent, while Etisalat has 15 per cent market share.
