The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has reported an upward surge of 152 million active internet subscribers and a total of 98.75 million unused registered sim cards in the month of July 2022. According to a fresh industry report on internet usage, telecom operators recorded about one million new subscriptions in the month of July 2022 to achieve the announced figure while about 98 million registered sims were recorded as unused.
During the same month in question, only 206.08 million sims were active out of the 304.98 million sims in circulation.
The reason for the huge number of unused sims in circulation was traced to the recent information by the NCC that it was legal for one person to own and register more than one sim and there was a possibility of having a ‘main’ sim and a dormant sim.
Speaking further on the same issue, the chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, said, “It is a combination of many things. It could be people having multiple lines that they do not use.
“Traditionally, a lot of people carry more than one phone. Some have an office line; some have private lines but use one more often than the other. Some are in the Diaspora, who though they hold Nigerian SIM cards, are not residents here.
For internet subscriptions, major operators like MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile accounted for 151.4 million of the total subscriptions.
These four major operators have maintained their dominance in the sector while Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) operators like Smile Communications and Ntel accounted for 366,271 subscriptions.
14,716 of the total subscribers were on fixed wired networks of 21st Century and iPNX while other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country accounted for 210,597 active subscriptions.
The NCC data, however, revealed that the bulk of the surge in subscription figures in July was driven solely by Globacom, which gained 1.3 million new subscriptions.
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