Telcos connect 3.4m Nigerians to 5G as global connections hit 1.5b

Telecommunications operators with Fifth-Generation (5G) network licenses have connected about 3.4 million Nigerians to the networks within two years of its commercial launch in Nigeria.

The latest subscription statistics released on Monday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that 5G penetration was 2.1 per cent as of the end of last quarter.

Recall that as of March, when NCC last released industry data, 5G penetration stood at 1.24 per cent in the country. The data showed that in April, 5G usage climbed to 1.31 per cent; May, 1.73 per cent; June, 1.81 per cent; July, 1.85 per cent; August, 2.12 per cent and 2.19 per cent as of the end of last quarter.

According to NCC data and due to the NIN-SIM exercise, telecommunications subscriptions dropped from 219.3 million in March to 154.9 million, which was a 30 per cent drop.

It could be deduced that the 2.19 per cent means that 3,372,600 telecom subscribers of the 154.9 million are currently on the 5G network in Nigeria.

As of now, three operators with 5G licenses, MTN, Mafab Communications and Airtel are expanding the service across the country. While the impact of MTNand Airtel appeared visible, currently in about 30 cities of the country, not much can be said of Mafab for now.

Further analysis of the NCC data showed that 4G has overtaken 2G as the dominant technology in the country with 44.96 per cent; 2G is second with 43.53 per cent and 3G, 9.32 per cent.

Meanwhile, in terms of data consumption, Nigerians as of last quarter had consumed 850,249.09 terabytes. As of March, data consumption was 753,388.77 terabytes. It moved to 766,708.12 terabytes in April; 771,993.56 terabytes in May; 798,583.81 terabytes in June; 829,584.47 terabytes in July; 853,954.05 terabytes in August and 850,249.09 terabytes in September.

GSMA in its report revealed that the number of 5G connections globally surpassed 1.5 billion at the end of 2023, making it the fastest-growing mobile broadband technology to date.

The industry body noted that 5G only took four years to reach this number, while 3G took 10 years to reach the same milestone and more than five years for 4G.

“Having surpassed 2G and 3G in terms of number of connections in 2023, it is expected to become the dominant global technology by the end of the decade. The number of connections on 2G and 3G networks will continue to decline in the coming years as users migrate to 4G and 5G,” said the industry body.

GSMA, however, noted that while 5G deployments are starting to take off in many low-middle-income countries (LMICs), they are unlikely to become the predominant mobile technology in many countries even by 2030.