FRI, SEPT 07 2018-theG&BJournal-Regulator of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has indicated that Globacom had the highest new internet subscriber acquisition record in the month of July as it gained 66% of the industry’s new data users.
The NCC statistics revealed that Globacom majorly stimulated the noticeable growth in the figure of internet users on hand-held devices during the period in review. The total figure of data users in the country increased to 103.67 million in July from its 102.81 June figure having acquired 866,656 new data users.
Explaining the gain in the number of data users, the regulatory agency added that Globacom led the gainers’ chart with 574,821 new data users out of the industry’s total 866,656 new internet users. This, for Globacom, makes a 66% leap from 26.57 million in June to 27.15 million in July.
Similarly, the report showed that Globacom has maintained a consistent growth in its subscriber base with a cumulative 2,153,374 new activations since 2018 began. The network had a subscriber base totaling 38,169,780 at the end of December 2017, but has since grown the figure to 40,323,154 as at the end of July 2018.
According to the report, the recently added 214,646 new customers gained by the network explains its leap from 40,108,508 subscribers in June to 40,323,154 by the end of July.
Coming a distant second was Airtel, with 149,880 additional customers. This new development pushed the network from 39,898,448 in June to 40,048,328 in July.
However, MTN and 9mobile both lost customers within the period under review. MTN’s subscriber base depleted by 999,891 subscribers while 9mobile reduced by 246,221 customers.
On the acquisition of new data customers, Airtel’s figure swelled by 375,724 from 26.71 internet users in June to 27.09 million in July. MTN also gained on this score to 39.07 million with its additional 134,197 new data users in July from its 38.94 million figure in June.
However, the trend was not favourable to 9mobile as its data subscriptions nosedived from 10.59million in June to 10.37million as a result of the 218,086 internet users it lost in July
Industry analysts opine that the vast increases that Globacom currently enjoys may not be unconnected with the gamut of attractive and user-friendly packages which give prepaid and post-paid phone users myriads of benefits on the network. These include its recently-launched Glo Yakata and Oga SIM. While the former offers a whopping 2,200% bonus on every N100 recharge and above, the latter gives 125% bonus on every data subscription.
