Active Telephone Lines Drop by 400,000 in One Month
- By Abimbola Tooki
- Published June 6th, 2011
- News
- Unrated
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed that the total number of active telephone lines in the country dropped by about 400,000 between March and April this year.
According to the latest statistics on the industry released by the commission, the total active lines dropped from 90,969,794 to 90,586,785 within the period.
The breakdown of this figure showed that the number of GSM subscribers dropped from 83,857,798 to 83,643,903 within the period under review while the number of CDMA subscribers dropped from 6,128,661 to 5,985,163. The fixed wired and wireless subscribers dropped from 983,335 to 957,719.
The statistics also showed that the total number of connected lines in the country dropped by 800,000 from 118,103,715 to 117,303,160 within the period. The number of GSM users that dropped took the lion share of about 550,000 subscribers. This made the current tele-density in the country to drop from 64.98 to 64.70. The total installed capacity of all telecom operators in the country, however, increased by over 1.6 million from 159,336,375 to 160,940,523.
Tele-density was calculated based on population estimate of 126 million up till December 2005. From December 2006, tele-density was based on a population estimate of 140 million.
Pyramid Research report projects that Nigeria’s mobile subscriptions will surpass 128 million by 2014, creating a substantial user base for the development of the mobile applications market.
The overall drop in the number of active lines in the country may not be unconnected with the recent poor quality of services that cut across all the telecom networks. Many of the subscribers who use more than one phone were believed to have dropped some of their lines due to this challenge.
This development confirmed the commission’s recent concern about the state of the quality of service in the country. Worried by the continued fall in the quality of services provided by the telecom operators, Engineer Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, recently summoned operators to Abuja to explain the reasons for the state of affairs in their networks. He, thereafter, directed them to take immediate measures that will improve their quality of services including stoppage of promotions where the capacity is limited.
Akinwale Goodluck, MTN Nigeria’s corporate services executive, noted that the drop might be due to one of the operators adjusting the number of subscribers on its network. “An operator might have counted what is not meant to be counted and was discovered by the regulator within the period, for instance,” he said.
Chima Onyekwere, chief executive officer of Linkserve Limited, while commenting on this development, said the number of dropped lines within one month as reported by NCC is not significant enough to actually determine, in specific terms, what could have been responsible.
Onyekwere observed that if a particular line is inactive for sometime, the operator can decide to drop the line. “Apart from this, it is also possible that over 400,000 Nigerians could have travelled abroad within the period when the research was conducted,” he said.
According to the latest statistics on the industry released by the commission, the total active lines dropped from 90,969,794 to 90,586,785 within the period.
The breakdown of this figure showed that the number of GSM subscribers dropped from 83,857,798 to 83,643,903 within the period under review while the number of CDMA subscribers dropped from 6,128,661 to 5,985,163. The fixed wired and wireless subscribers dropped from 983,335 to 957,719.
The statistics also showed that the total number of connected lines in the country dropped by 800,000 from 118,103,715 to 117,303,160 within the period. The number of GSM users that dropped took the lion share of about 550,000 subscribers. This made the current tele-density in the country to drop from 64.98 to 64.70. The total installed capacity of all telecom operators in the country, however, increased by over 1.6 million from 159,336,375 to 160,940,523.
Tele-density was calculated based on population estimate of 126 million up till December 2005. From December 2006, tele-density was based on a population estimate of 140 million.
Pyramid Research report projects that Nigeria’s mobile subscriptions will surpass 128 million by 2014, creating a substantial user base for the development of the mobile applications market.
The overall drop in the number of active lines in the country may not be unconnected with the recent poor quality of services that cut across all the telecom networks. Many of the subscribers who use more than one phone were believed to have dropped some of their lines due to this challenge.
This development confirmed the commission’s recent concern about the state of the quality of service in the country. Worried by the continued fall in the quality of services provided by the telecom operators, Engineer Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, recently summoned operators to Abuja to explain the reasons for the state of affairs in their networks. He, thereafter, directed them to take immediate measures that will improve their quality of services including stoppage of promotions where the capacity is limited.
Akinwale Goodluck, MTN Nigeria’s corporate services executive, noted that the drop might be due to one of the operators adjusting the number of subscribers on its network. “An operator might have counted what is not meant to be counted and was discovered by the regulator within the period, for instance,” he said.
Chima Onyekwere, chief executive officer of Linkserve Limited, while commenting on this development, said the number of dropped lines within one month as reported by NCC is not significant enough to actually determine, in specific terms, what could have been responsible.
Onyekwere observed that if a particular line is inactive for sometime, the operator can decide to drop the line. “Apart from this, it is also possible that over 400,000 Nigerians could have travelled abroad within the period when the research was conducted,” he said.
