By Oludare Mayowa
Nigeria’s mobile phone subscribers increased marginally by 0.31 percent in June to 187,611,501 from 187,026,517 million in May, according to data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Tuesday.
However, internet subscription declined by -0.22 percent in June to 140,175,169 from 140,488,490 in the previous month.
The industry regulator’s data showed that while mobile telephone subscribers grew by 584,984 between May and June, internet subscription fell by 313,321 between May and June.
The subscriber base of the telecommunication companies has consistently dropped since November last year when it peaked at 207.91 million and declined to 204.52 million in December, 200.21 million in January, 196.08 million in February, 192.41 million in March and 187.03 million in May, before rising marginally to 187.61 million in June.
Observers said the mandatory requirement that mobile phone subscribers must link their SIM with their National Indentity Number (NIN) may have slowed down the number of telephone users in the period between December to May.
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Though sales of SIM card has been lifted by the government, many subscribers have not been able to obtain their NIN while some have lost their SIM and were not able to replace such without the NIN.
MTN Nigeria sustained its leadership position in the industry as the local unit of South Africa’s telecom firm has 39.28 percent of the market share.
Airtel Nigeria over took Globacom, the operators of Glo Mobile to the second position as the local unit of Indian Bhati move up to control 27.05 percent of market share to Glo 26.77 percent of the market share, while 9Mobile came distance fourth with 6.89 percent of market share.
MTN Nigeria now has 73.57 million subscribers by June end, Airtel has 50.66 million, Glo with 50.13 million while 9Mobile posted 12.91 million subscriber base.
Internet subscribtion fell 140.17 million in June compared with 140.48 million in the month of May, as shown by the NCC latest data.