TMCnet News
Glo now Nigeria's No. 2 telecoms operator(Nigerian Tribune Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NATIONAL telecommunications operator, Globacom, has moved to the position of the second largest mobile service provider in the country. According to figures just published by industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on its website, Glo had 27,327,646 subscribers on its network as of the end of June 2014. The figure translates to 21 per cent share of the Nigerian telecoms market, and places Glo second to MTN, which has 56,516,759 subscribers. Globacom, which conceded the position to Airtel a few months ago, achieved the feat by recording 2.8 million new subscribers between February and June, the largest by any operator in the country within the period. Airtel, which occupied the second position briefly early this year, falls to the third place with 25,302,160 subscribers and 20 per cent market share. Etisalat retains the fourth position with 19,390,285 customers, which represents 15 per cent share of the market. Instructively, while Glo and Etisalat made gains between the last time NCC released subscriber figures in February, and now, MTN and Airtel recorded losses. The figures for the operators as at the end of February were 57,183,745 for MTN, 26,194,336 for Airtel, 24,490,650 for Glo and 18,119,397 for Etisalat. In effect, between end of February and June end, Glo added 2,836,996 new subscribers to its network, while Etisalat recorded 1,270,888 new customers. On the other hand, MTN lost 666,986 subscribers, while Airtel also lost 892,176 customers, the highest loss within the period. Glo also retained its position as the network with the second largest internet subscription in the country with 14.3 million active subscriptions. MTN is in the first place with 34 million, while Airtel and Etislat have 12 million and 6.8 million active internet subscriptions respectively. Industry sources believe that the massive network upgrade recently embarked upon by Glo and its bouquet of new service offerings may have given it the edge over other operators. The network expansion involved swapping of old base stations with new ones and modernisation of existing infrastructure into a state-of-the-art network software and hardware. It also involves achieving 90 percent 3G coverage, the first in the industry, making it possible for Glo data subscribers across the country to experience significant service enhancement. |