Nigerian Telecommunications Sector Summary Report Q4 2015

Nigerian Telecommunications Sector Summary Report Q4 2015

Executive summary:
  • Total number of GSM subscribers rises from 1.48m at the end of q3 2015 to an industry high of 149.7m in November but dipped to 148.6m in December 2015
  • This drop in total subscribers was due to a declines in MTN (from 62.4m to 61.2  m) and Etisalat  (from 23,4m to 22.1m), while Glo and Airtel witnesses rises in their number of subscribers.
  • This drop in total subscribers was due to a declines in MTN (from 62.4m to 61.2  m) and Etisalat  (from 23,4m to 22.1m), while Glo and Airtel witnesses rises in their number of subscribers.
  • On a year on year basis however, nos of  gsm subscribers rose from 136.6m in December 2014 to 148.6m in December 2015.
  • MTN however still dominated market share by December 2015.
  • GSM internet subscriptions rose from 97.06m at the end of q3 2015 to 97.5m in November before dropping to 97.03in December 2015 due to a decline in subscriptions in MTN while all other providers witnessed a rise in subscriptions.
     
  • Porting activities refer to the transferal of subscribers to different network carriers. Therefore, incoming porting activities refer to those subscribers that have joined a network, whilst outgoing porting activities refer to those whom have left.
     
  • 2015 was a more active year for porting activities than 2014, total incoming activity increased by 42.88% from 148,652 to 212,401 incoming porters. This was driven to a large extent by Etisalat, who gained 137,466 incoming porters in 2015 compared to 69,364 in 2014, and increase of 98.18%. 
     
  • Outgoing activity increased by 50.38% from 145,998 to 219,559 between 2014 and 2015. This increase was driven mainly by MTN who lost 125,515 porters in 2015 compared to 67,039 in 2014, an increase of 87.23%. 
  • Airtel also lost substantially more porters in 2015 compared to 2014, 41,527 in 2015 compared to 25,883 in 2014, an increase of 60.44%.
     
  • Across all providers, there are numerous options for tariff plans, each differing according to the overall cost and the services provided. This reflects the fact that there are many facets to the services telecommunications companies provide, such as SMS messaging, local and international call and data bundles.
     
  • The variety of options may reflect the telecommunications companies attempting to attract customers with more tailored packages, catering to a wide range of different user needs. 
     
  • Tariffs tend to differ according to whether they are on-peak or off-peak, whether the service is to someone on the same network (on-net) or a different one (off-net), and whether they are pre- or post-paid. However not all networks offer different prices according to these characteristics; for its pre-paid plans, Etisalat offers the same prices for on-net and off-net calls regardless of what bundle is purchased, and Airtel do not distinguish between on-peak of off-peak calls. 
     
  • As a result of the different options available, whether or not prices are higher or lower than in 2014 largely depends on usage. For example, Airtel 2Good Classic (a particular package offered by Airtel) offers cheaper rates than Airtel Connect (an alternative package), but charges a daily fee of 5 naira. Therefore which is cheaper will depend on usage; the more the line is used, the more it would be worth paying the 5 naira daily fee.
Data source: National Bureau of Statistics & NCC

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