9th July, 2014
Daniels Ekugo
Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and 13 other telecoms companies in Nigeria have been declared “inactive operators” by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
NCC’s declaration of NITEL and its mobile business unit, MTEL Limited, as inactive “further reflects the southward fortunes of the two public-owned telcos, as they technically no longer contribute to the periodic subscriber information released by the telecoms regulator.”
Also declared inactive were other private telcos, such as Disc Communications, Intercellular Nigeria Limited, and Reliance Telecoms (also known as Zoom). Starcomms, MTS 1st Communications, WITEL, O’net (Odua Telecom), Rainbownet Limited, Monarch Communications, XS Broadband, Webcom and IPNX completed the list.
However, the “Big Four” – MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom and Etisalat – account for 98.12 per cent of the market compared to 1.74 per cent by the CDMA operators and 0.14 per cent by the fixed lines sectors of the telecoms industry, contributing 126,958,904 of the total 129,391,392 active phone connections in the country.
NCC’s figures revealed that the CDMA mobile sector contributed 2,256,612, while fixed wireless operators added only 172,876 of the active lines recorded in April 2014.
A further breakdown of the figures shows MTN to have 58,355,855, Airtel 25,475,672, Globacom 24,015,713, and Etisalat 19,111,664 – representing 46 per cent, 20 per cent, 19 per cent and 15 per cent respectively of the market.