….as data revenue surges by 40%
MTN Nigeria, one of the nation’s mobile network operators, has announced a 20.6% surge in its revenue for the first quarter of this year to N568 billion compared to the N470.9 billion revenue accruals it reported in the corresponding quarter of 2022
In the quarter under review, the telco’s data revenue significantly grew by 40% to N227.8 billion, while voice revenue marginally increased by 7.3% to hit N277.6 billion, representing the first time the company’s data revenue surpassed its voice call earnings.
Industry analysts believe that the change in MNO’s financial performance is not unconnected to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC’s) sustained drive towards investments in broadband infrastructure in the telecom industry over the past years as characterized by the recent roll out of 4G and 5G networks by operators.
For instance, MTN Nigeria rolled out its 5G network late last year even as it expanded its 4G network to ensure faster Internet speed for its subscribers.
Commenting on the company’s performance in Q1 2023, the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Karl Toriola, stated: “Active data subscribers rose by 1.7 million, benefitting from our efforts to drive data conversion in new and existing subscribers. During the quarter, we focused on enhancing the capacity and coverage of our 4G and 5G networks, which supported rising data traffic.
“Our total data traffic increased by 50.3%, while 4G traffic constitutes 81.6% (up by 5.5pp). In addition, we rolled out additional 170 5G sites in Q1, bringing the population coverage to 4% and expanding the network experience to more smartphone users”, the industry expert added.
On the 40% surge in the telco’s revenue from data source, the CEO attributed the performance to the company’s “sustained investment in our networks to drive 4G and 5G coverage and enhance the quality and capacity of the network to support the rising data traffic. As a result, our 4G network now covers 79.3% of the population, up from 79.1% in December 2022, and data usage (GB per user) grew by 31.3% to 7.8GB.
“In addition, we added over 804k new smartphones to our network in Q1, bringing smartphone penetration to 52.7%. We continued to advance our home broadband penetration by adding 169k users in Q1, bringing our user base to 1.4 million. This was supported by deploying our 5G fixed wireless access devices, mobile broadband solutions and fiber-to-the-home connectivity”, the MTN Chief added.
Industry analysts believe that the change in MNO’s financial performance is not unconnected to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC’s) sustained drive towards investments in broadband infrastructure in the telecom industry over the past years as characterized by the recent roll out of 4G and 5G networks by operators.
For instance, MTN Nigeria rolled out its 5G network late last year even as it expanded its 4G network to ensure faster Internet speed for its subscribers.
The latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that the telecom operator recorded 1.1 million new subscribers in Q1 2023, thereby increasing the total number of mobile users on its network to 76.7 million.
