The new internet subscriber acquisition report for the month of October, 2016, released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown that only Globacom acquired new data subscribers out of the four major telecoms operators.
The report, as shown on the regulator’s website, revealed that the telecom industry shed a total of 378,015 from the 93.5m subscribers recorded in September to 93.1m in October.
Globacom recorded a total of 297,623 new subscribers in October, shoring up its data subscriber base from 26,887,929 in September to 27,185,552 in October and reaffirming its position as Nigeria’s grandmasters of data.
According to the report, two networks, MTN and Etisalat, lost data subscribers during the period under review, while Airtel retained the same number of data subscribers, neither losing nor gaining.
MTN lost a total of 306,480 internet surfers from its subscriber base of 32,771,259 in September, reducing the figure to 32,464,779 subscribers in October.
Similarly, Etisalat also lost a total of 369,158 internet browsers in October, shedding its data subscriber base to 14,693,492 in October from 15,062,650 users it recorded in September this year.
Airtel which had 18,832,238 million internet users in September, retained the exact number in October.
In the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) category, operators lost 13,664 data users recording 38,309 in October as against the 51,973 subscribers they had in September.
Globacom had, on October 4, launched the 4G LTE, becoming the first network to launch the service in Nigeria and making it the network of choice for data subscribers nationwide. The Glo 4G LTE makes it possible for millions of subscribers to enjoy instant efficient broadband internet connectivity.