92 Million Mobile Phone Users Connected to Internet

A total of 92,181,978 GSM subscribers use Internet through mobile telecommunications networks, the National Bureau of Statistics has said.

The NBS stated this in its second quarter sector report which was made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday.

The report said, “Of all GSM users, a total of 92,181,978 had an Internet subscription with one of the four carriers of Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN in June 2016.

“This means that all of the active GSM lines, 61.79 per cent had an Internet subscription. Throughout most of 2014 and 2015, this proportion had been increasing. However in the first two quarters of 2016, it had declined; from 65.26 per cent in December 2015 to 62.61 per cent in March 2016, and further to 61.79% in June 2016. This proportion is also lower than in June 2015, when it was 63.28 per cent. This was the first month or quarter to record a fall in this proportion relative to the previous year.”

The report also delved into other areas of the telecommunications industry.

On fixed networks, it said, “In contrast to fixed wireless line and CDMA technology types, the number of fixed wired line subscribers increased slightly both quarter on quarter (by 0.20 per cent) and year on year (by 1.41 per cent).

“In June 2016, there were 125,452 subscribers to this technology type, compared to 125,196 in March 2016 and 123,708 in June 2015.

“IpNX was the only fixed wired line provider to record a quarter on quarter decline in their number of subscribers, which fell from 2,764 in March 2016 to 2,597 in June 2016, a fall of 6.04 per cent.

“The other three providers for this technology type all recorded small increases, although none of the increases were above one per cent; 21st Century and Glo Fixed each recorded increases of 0.35 per cent relative to March 2016; the number of 21st Century subscribers increased from 103,191 to 103,552, and the number of Glo Fixed subscribers increased from 11,750 to 11,791.”

It added that the increase recorded by MTN Fixed was slightly less. Its number of subscribers increased from 7,491 in March to 7,514 in June 2016, an increase of 0.20 per cent.