Business News
Nigeria’s connected mobile lines hit 319.6 million, 104.9 million are inactive
Keep in mind that despite the rise in active users and new activations, telecom carriers have always had lines that are not in use.
In October, there were 319.6 million connected lines between MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile’s mobile networks.
This is based on the most recent subscriber information provided by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). RNN was able to access NCC statistics showing that just 244.3 million of these lines were actually in use.
It follows that a total of 104.9 million lines on the networks have stopped functioning. A mobile line is considered inactive if the customer hasn’t used it to place or receive calls, access data services, or both for at least 90 days.
As they don’t generate any revenue for telecom operators during the specified time, these lines are disconnected from active lines. With a total of 83.2 million active subscribers by the end of October, MTN accounted for 38.85% of the active lines in use.
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With 59.6 million active lines over the time period in question, Globacom kept its second-place ranking and a market share of 27.82%. With 58.6 million active subscriptions, Airtel’s market share was 27.37% as of October.
However, 9mobile, which had 12.7 million subscribers, only held 5.96% of the mobile market.
Inactive lines
Mobile networks still have a lot of inactive lines, but that number has dropped dramatically over the past year. There were 139 million idle lines in the network as of August 2021.
Keep in mind that despite the rise in active users and new activations, telecom carriers have always had lines that are not in use. The impossibility of many users to retrieve their lines between December 9, 2020, and April 19, 2021, as well as the ban on new SIM registration, made the problem worse.
A new SIM policy that the NCC implemented may possibly be to blame for the progressive decline in the number of dormant lines. The NCC recently announced that subscribers would lose their lines after 12 months of inactivity.
The Commission noted in the new policy statement that “Subscriber numbers that have not produced income by originating calls will automatically be repossessed after 12 consecutive months.”