Encomium
Nigeria’s data grandmasters, Globacom, posted the highest data penetration among the four major operators in the telecommunications industry.
This was gleaned from the report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) covering the first three months of 2017. According to the report, Globacom recorded a total number of 27,021,200 internet users on its network. This translates to 72% of the total number of subscribers on its network which stood at 37,328,827 at the end of the quarter.
The data penetration rate of 72% figure is more than the industry average of 59%. The total number of internet users in the industry stood at 90,003,101 as at the end of Quarter 1 compared to a total of 152,216,763 subscribers in the industry.
Etisalat was second with a data penetration of 68% as it had 13,008,481 data users out of a total subscriber base of 19,621,806. Airtel came third with 56% internet penetration. Data users on its network as at March, 2017, were 19,423,760, out of the total 34,656,605 subscribers on its network.
MTN recorded the least penetration of data users on its network in comparison with the total number of subscribers using the network. Only 30,519,351 or 51% of its 60,391,959 customers subscribed to its data services.
In the last two years, Globacom has maintained its position as the preferred network on data services. The network added half a million customers to its internet subscriber base in the last one year. The steady growth in the number of data subscribers on the network is remarkable when considered alongside the dwindling number of internet users recorded by the industry in the last one year. The figure which stood at 92,409,962 as at March, 2016, fell to 90,003,101 by March, 2017. MTN and Etisalat accounted for most of the losses, having shed 2,837,244 and 2,234,375 data customers respectively during the period.
Globacom’s success in the segment is said to be a fallout of the improved data services which followed the recent network improvement exercise carried out by the company. It has also launched several attractive and user-friendly packages which offer a lot of appeal to data users.
