• GSMA sees 5G adoption hitting 17 per cent in six years
By the end of last quarter, 2,729 subscribers moved from one network to another through mobile number portability (MNP) scheme.
MTN received more telecoms subscribers from other networks. Specifically, the telecommunications operator witnessed an intake of 1,661 customers.
It was followed by Airtel, which took in 795 users, while Globacom got 196 subscribers and 9mobile was left with 77 customers.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), some subscribers were not happy with MTN equally ported out of the network. The report showed that 177 users left the Yhello network by the end of 2023. Globacom lost 276 users; Airtel had 217 customers ported out. 9mobile recorded the highest number of casualties with 2,059 customers leaving the network.
Interestingly, the NBS data showed that the number of customers who ported out and the number of those who ported in were the same at 2,729.
MNP scheme will be 11 years in Nigeria in April, having been launched on April 22, 2013. It was launched to improve the quality of service and other service concerns by deepening competition among telecoms service providers, but it appears the purpose of it might have been defeated, especially due to the multi-SIMMING nature of Nigeria’s telecoms sector.
When MNP was introduced in Nigeria, there were about 100 million telephone users, today, despite it, the figure has doubled. As of last year, there were 224 million active connected SIMs in the country.
Relatedly, as of last quarter, the NBS statistics, largely sorted from the NCC, showed that South West had the largest voice subscriptions among the regions in the country with 67.28 million users. North West was second with 40.9 million; North Central came third with 39.5 million.
Others are North East with 27.4 million users; South-South had 26.8 million and South East recorded 22.75 million voice subscribers.
In terms of Internet usage, South West led with 48.3 million users; North West followed with 30.2 million; North Central was third with 28.7 million; North East, 20.45 million; South-South, 19.72 million and South East ended 2023 with 16 million web surfers.
Meanwhile, the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA) has predicted that Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan countries’ fifth generation (5G) network adoption would hit 17 per cent by 2030.
Going by statistics from the NCC, 5G subscriptions in the country increased to 2.3 million in December 2023. This represented 1.04 per cent of the country’s total active subscriptions for telephone services, which stood at 224.7 million at the end of last year.
Three mobile network operators, MTN, Airtel and Mafab Communications have rolled out 5G in Nigeria.
According to GSMA, this growth in 5G adoption rate from one per cent in 2023 to 17 per cent by 2030 is expected to account for 234 million connections. In its ‘The Mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa (2024)’ report, the body noted that 5G growth in the region will be slow but steady as a larger share of the customer base will continue to migrate and use 4G.
GSMA is the body which represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More than 750 mobile operators are full GSMA members and a further 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem are associate members.
“The number of connections on 2G and 3G will continue to decline in the coming years as users migrate to 4G and 5G, leading to an increasing number of networks,” it said.
According to GSMA Intelligence, 143 networks in SSA on 2G and 3G are scheduled to be retired between 2023 and 2030, with around 50 per cent planned by the end of 2024.
“While 5G’s momentum continues to grow, the initial focus for 5G deployment is on the mobile industry increasingly moving to the 5G standalone and 5G-Advanced standard to unlock innovative 5G use cases and create opportunities to enable enhanced functionality for the enterprise market,” it added.
