Latest data on internet growth in the country has indicated that Nigeria’s data grandmasters, Globacom, has remained the preferred telecommunications company in terms of internet penetration as at the end of Quarter 1, 2017.
The report covering the first three months of year 2017 undertaken by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that Globacom recorded a total of 27,021,200 internet users on its network. This translates to 72 per cent of the total number of subscribers on its network, which stood at 37,328,827 at the end of the quarter.
The data penetration rate of 72 per cent figure is more than the industry average of 59 per cent. The total number of internet users in the industry was 90,003,101 by the end of the first quarter of the year compared to a total of 152,216,763 subscribers in the industry.
The telecom operator that placed second was Etisalat with a data penetration of 68 per cent as it had 13,008,481 data users out of a total subscriber base of 19,621,806. Airtel placed third with 56 percent internet penetration. Data users on Airtel network as at March 2017, was 19,423,760, out of the total 34,656,605 subscribers on its network.
MTN brought up the rear, recording the least penetration of data users on its network in comparison with the total number of subscribers using the network. Only 30,519,351 or 51 per cent of its 60,391,959 customers subscribed to its data services.
With this latest report, Globacom has retained its position as the preferred network for data services in the last two years. The network added half a million customers to its internet subscriber base in the last one year.