Telecom Companies Battle For Market Share

The use of communication data for Internet and other purposes increased by 3.34 per cent at the end of February 2014, as the number of subscribers went up from 12,405,907 to 12,820,334, the National Communications Authority (NCA) has announced.

The telecommunications industry regulator also said subscribers for mobile voice telephony grew by 0.69 per cent, up from 28,419.649 subscribers in January to 28,615,446 subscribers by February 2014.

The growth in both data and mobile voice subscriptions mean that the overall penetration rate for data in the country has increased from 47.36 per cent in January to 48.84 per cent in February, while voice is still above 100 per cent.

Data subscription

In a statement posted on its website, the NCA said MTN’s subscriber base for data increased from 6,725,164 at the end of January to 6,776,644 at the end of February 2014, decreasing their market share from 54.21 per cent to 52.86 per cent.

It said Vodafone’s subscriber base improved from 1,861,938 to 2,033,867 as of the end of February 2014, representing 15.86 per cent of the total market share.

“Airtel’s subscriber base increased from 1,963,799 as at the end of January to 1,978,240 by the end of February, 2014 and this figure represents 15.43 per cent of the total market share,” the statement said.

The only CDMA technology user, Expresso, grew its data subscriber base from 50,446 to 50,551 representing 0.39 per cent of the total market share within the period under review, with tiGO also improving its market share at 13.07 per cent, as its subscriber base increased from 1,496,529 to 1,675,915.

On the contrary, GLO shaved 0.10 per cent of its market share, from 2.48 per cent at the end of January, 2014 to 2.38 per cent as of end February, 2014, with a subscriber base of 305,117, the NCA said.

Voice market share

On mobile voice, MTN maintained its position as the dominant mobile operator by growing its subscriber base from 12,968,610 to 12,986,832. Vodafone increased the subscriber base from 6,244,855 to 6,413,376, representing 22.41 per cent of the total market share, the statement said.

The statement added that tiGO’s subscriber base shot up to 4,086,615 or 14.28 per cent of the market share for the period under review.

Airtel captured 12.36 per cent of the mobile voice market with 3,537,316 subscribers, as GLO again shaved some share of the market from 5.17 per cent to 5.02 per cent, with a subscriber base of 1,437,580, it said.

The statement added that Expresso ended the month of February, 2014 with a market share of 0.54 per cent, as a result of a decrease in their subscriber base from 168,998 in January to 153,727.