The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed that subscriptions for the Internet services on mobile, fixed and VOIP networks in the country totals 156.9 million in February this year.
The commission, in its latest Internet subscriptions report, indicated that telecom operators recorded a total of 743,065 new subscriptions in the month under review.
According to the telecom industry regulator, as of January 2023, internet subscriptions across the networks totalled 156.2 million, which indicated that the subscriptions increased by 0.48% in February.
The report indicated that the mobile network operators (MNOs), namely MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile maintained their dominance of the internet market with 156.4 million subscriptions through their networks.
Also, VOIP operators Smile and Ntel recorded 345,422 internet subscriptions during the month in review, while 16,320 were on fixed wired networks (21st Century and iPNX).
Similarly, the latest data showed that subscription to broadband (high-speed internet service) also surged to 92.5 million in February from 92 million recorded in the preceding month, thereby raising the nation’s broadband penetration to 48.49%.
The Internet subscriptions trend’s report from the NCC reflected that Globacom recorded an increase of 340,576 internet subscriptions in the month, which increased the telco’s total active internet subscriptions to 43.4 million from the 43.06 million it recorded in January 2023.
Also, MTN, which has the largest operator by subscriber number, recorded 335,939 new internet subscriptions in the month, thereby raising its total active subscriptions to 66.7 million from the 66.4 million it recorded in January 2023.
This is even as Airtel recorded a 111,039 increase in the month under review, which increased its active internet subscriptions database from 41.7 million in January to 41.8 million in February this year.
However, 9mobile internet subscriptions numbers declined in the month under review by 41,851, which pushed down the telco’s active internet subscriptions to 4.33 million from the 4.38 million subscriptions it recorded in January this year.
