Telecom industry reports show that the GSM subscriber base of data grandmasters, Globacom, has in the last one year increased sharply by 5,063,895. The company’s number of customers which stood at 31,256,677 by June 2015 rose to 36,320,572 at the end of June this year. The new 5,063,895 customers represented 68% of the 7,477,977 additional GSM lines in the country in the last 12 months.
The latest statistics published on the website of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that Airtel placed second on the table with 2,414,082 new customers or 32%. However, it was reverse fortunes for MTN and Etisalat as they both suffered losses.
While Etisalat lost 382,336 customers, MTN’s subscriber base went down by 4, 403,344 in the last one year. Details of the NCC report showed that Globacom’s market share has risen from 21% to 24%, while MTN which once overwhelmingly dominated the sector by over 45% suffered a significant reduction to 39% as it recorded 58.4m subscribers compared to 62,813,111 it had a year ago.
Thus, while Glo has reduced the gap between it and MTN, it has substantially widened the gap between it and Airtel. Both Glo and Airtel previously had the same 21% market share a few months ago, with Glo enjoying a marginal lead then. Airtel which had 29,564,766 subscribers at the middle of last year, had 31,978,848 customers at the end of June 2016.
This still keeps it at 21% share of the GSM market. Fourth operator Etisalat has 15% share with 22,469,896 customers at the end of June, 2016, compared to 22,852,232 in June last year. Globacom has also for the last one and half years been the leader in the data market.