The number of active subscribers for internet services across the four major GSM network operators in Nigeria, namely, Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN, hit 93.554 million in September, National Communications Commission, NCC, has said.
According to the latest Internet Subscriber Data, this figure represented a jump of about 30,000 over 93.524 million subscribers of the previous month.
While the number significantly dropped by 3.536 million customers from 97.060 million it achieved in the corresponding month in 2015, when compared with 95.794 million active subscribers for data on the networks as at January this year, it translated to a fall by 2.24 million customers.
A breakdown of the internet subscription revealed that 18.832 million subscribers were active on data on the Airtel network in September and 15.062 million customers subscribed for data on the Etisalat network while for Globacom and MTN, 26.887 million customers and 32.771 million customers subscribed to data on the respective networks.
Even though there was no addition to the number of customers, who were active subscribers to data on the MTN network in September, Airtel had 313,000 added to its number of active data subscribers when compared to the level in August.
The remaining two telecoms operators, Etisalat and Globacom, however, experienced reduction in the active data subscribers in the review month, declining by 186,000 customers and 97,000 customers in comparison with the previous month when they recorded 15.248 million active data subscribers and 26.887 million active data subscribers, respectively.
Also, NCC disclosed that the four major networks experienced inward porting from a total of 17,776 customers in September, representing a drop of 2,223 customers from 20,119 of the previous month.
Out of the four networks, Etisalat gained inward porting of 13,365 customers in the review month, while Airtel received 1,475 customers; Globacom, 1,187 customers and MTN, 1,745 customers.