2016 Q1 Industry Report rates Glo dominant operator in data subscriptions

Globacom has consolidated its position as Nigeria’s preferred network for new data subscribers in the first quarter of 2016. Industry reports on the website of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that 1,448,354 new internet subscribers joined the Globacom network in the first three months of the year.
The operator garnered 354,178 new subscribers in January; 248,593 in February; and 845,583 subscribers in March. In all, the operator’s internet customers climbed to 26,530,420 at the end of the first quarter.
Globacom’s figure of 1,448,354 for the three months represented 80 percent of the total number of 1,820,651 new subscribers who used the internet services of the four key telecom operators in Nigeria in the first quarter of this year.
While Airtel recorded 319,229 new data subscribers for the three months, Etisalat had an addition of 53,068 new internet users on the network during the period. The combined figure for the two companies makes up 20% of the total figure of 1,820,651 new internet customers for the quarter.
On the contrary, MTN lost over 6.5 million customers, as its data subscribers dropped from 39,924,737 to 33,356,595.
The 2016 first quarter result reflects the trend witnessed in the last quarter of 2015 during which Globacom was the only network that recorded an increase in its internet subscriber base. It had an addition of 3.2m new internet subscribers in the quarter
MTN, Airtel and Etisalat all lost subscribers within the period. MTN suffered a loss of almost 2million customers, while Airtel lost nearly 900,000 subscribers. Etisalat, on its part, lost 408,282.
Similarly, a 12 month analysis published two months ago revealed that Globacom gained a total of 7,251,657 new internet users during the period. Etisalat secured 5,431,190 new internet customers, while Airtel got 961,548 new data customers in the 12 month period.
MTN recorded a net loss of 1,059,160 data customers during the period.