Globacom’s subscriber base grew by a remarkable one million in just one month, rising from 50,130,540 in June to 51,137,259 in July. This was indicated in the latest telecom industry data released by the regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
According to the NCC statistics, the other major operators, MTN and Airtel, recorded losses during the period under review. While MTN’s subscriber base shrank from 73,571,192 in June to 73,123,732 in July which is a loss of 447,460 customers, Airtel lost a total of 364,486 subscribers as its figure fell from 50,665,723 to 50,301,237.
The figures for the fourth operator, 9mobile, did not change during the review period as it had the same 12,908,092 for both June and July.
For the data segment of the market, the NCC report also showed that Globacom was the only operator that added new internet customers during the period. Those who subscribed to data services on its network increased from 37,875,966 in June to 38,214,155 in July. This is an addition of 338,189 new data customers.
The number of internet users for both MTN and Airtel decreased in July. MTN’s internet subscriber base fell from 59,594,891 in June to 59,008,651 in July, showing a loss of 586,240. Similarly, Airtel lost 182,682 data customers from the 36,235,905 it had in June to 36,053,223 in July. And for 9mobile, it recorded the same figure of 6,108,151 data subscribers for the two months, according to the NCC report.
Industry watchers believe that the outstanding performance by Globacom in both the voice and data segments is attributable to innovative services matched by competitive tariffs and affordable data plans. For instance, its 22X offer gives subscribers 22 times the value of every recharge, while the Berekete SIM gives subscribers N600 airtime, 700% bonus on every recharge and 100% bonus on all data plans. It also continuously enhances its network quality and has extended 4G data coverage to more cities across the country.
