Telecommunications operators in Nigeria suffered huge loss in their internet customer database in 2021 ask they lost 12.3 million subscriptions.
This development saw data subscriptions across mobile, fixed and VoIP networks plunged to 141.9 million in December 2021. As at December 2020, the telecom operators had a total of 154.3 million internet customers.
The decline was despite the moves by the Federal Government to increase access to the internet in the country through the implementation of the National Broadband Plan 2020-2025.
According to the latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), each of the network operators had a share of the subscriptions loss for the year.
Specifically, MTN, which entered the year with 65.3 million data customers ended with 58.8 million, as it lost 6.5 million subscriptions. Globacom’s data subscriptions plunged to 39.5 million from 40.1 million in December 2020, while Airtel also lost 3.7 million customers, which brought its database to 37.5 million at the end of 2021.
The fourth mobile network operator, 9mobile also lost 1.4 million subscriptions in the year, which brought its database to 5.7 million. Industry analysts attributed the loss to the four months suspension of new SIM registration which was lifted on April 19, 2021.
According to the federal government, the suspension, which took effect on December 9, 2020, was to allow a proper audit of the SIM registration database with a view to ensuring that all mobile lines in the country are properly registered.
However, many subscribers whose SIMs had issues, lost or stolen were unable to get a replacement within the period. Although the telcos were able to record some new subscriptions in the remaining months of the year after the lifting of the suspension, they could not recover the lost number.
Meanwhile, subscriptions for mobile voice service also declined by nine million last year.
According to the NCC’s data, the mobile subscriptions database, which stood at 204 million as of December 2020, declined to 195 million by the end of 2021. With this, the country’s teledensity, which stood at 107.18 per cent in 2020, plunged to 102.40 in 2021.
The teledensity measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, and it is being calculated based on a population estimate of 190 million.
In line with the government’s policy, the telecom operators have had to disconnect many lines last year. Between September and October, for instance, a total of 98.5 million lines were disconnected by the telcos.
This had brought the total number of connected lines in the country down to 229.5 million from 328 million recorded in August 2021.
Before the on-going NIN-SIM linkage exercise, the telecom opera-tors had been directed to disconnect any line found to have been improperly registered from their networks.
NCC’s guidelines also permit the telecommunications companies to disconnect and reassign SIM cards once they are inactive for a maximum of 180 days.
Checks revealed that more mobile lines had become inactive since the mandatory linkage with NIN began in December 2020. This pushed the total number of disused lines across the networks of MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile to 139 million as of August 2021.
Before the 180 days for disconnection, a mobile line is categorised as inactive if it is not used by the subscriber to make or receive calls and/ or access data services for 90 days, at the minimum.
Such lines are separated from active lines as they generate no revenue for telecom operators within the stated period.
