The telecom operators in Nigeria may lose at least N40billion cumulative revenue for voice and data segments of their services in 2018.
This is coming on the heels of the ban on open SIM registration, 9mobile debt crisis and glitches plaguing the sector causing.
Active telecom lines in the country presently stand at about 144 million, according to NCC. Last year, telecom customers reduced from 155m in January to 144m in December, records from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed.
This is about 11m reduction in their customers’ number. This means that the telcos lost about N25bn voice revenue, based on monthly average revenue per user of $4 (N 1,220) which is the current industry benchmark.
However, this year, projections by operators and experts show that the four big telecoms operators and other smaller ones may further lose as much as between 15m and 20m of their customers.
Daily Trust investigation showed that ban on open SIM registration, the uncertainty over the fate of 9Mobile and inability of the operators to expand their networks to many unserved places within the country are jointly responsible for continued reduction in number of phone users.
The NCC in 2017 banned indiscriminate registration of SIM cards by the SIM vendors on the street. It directed that only the operators or their big dealers who have built up structures as their shops should register SIM cards.
This directive reduces the speed with which many Nigerians buy and register the SIMs. This prevented many of them to add to their GSM lines as it was their practice whenever they experienced frustration with operators of their main lines.
Also, the uncertainty over the fate of 9mobile is giving some of the subscribers in the network a valid reason to drop the line. Reports from the media said 9mobile have had its customers base reduced by about 3m since its debt crisis broke last year.
Daily Trust reports that if about 15m subscribers were to be lost again this year, it will cost the operators at least N40bn voice and data revenues, based on monthly average revenue per user for voice calls of N1,220 and N1,500 for data respectively.
The average revenue per user for voice calls has been declining since 2004 from over $15 per month per subscriber to a new low of $4. But in the contrary, data’s has been increasing with monthly average revenue per user of between N1,500 and N2,000.
The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said the decreasing revenue of their members due to decline in subscribers’ base, increase operating cost and intrusion of Over The Top services is of great concern to its members.
ALTON’s Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo said: “Telcos are losing money due to this trend.”
He said the telecom operators would have to invest a lot to make the networks support the data tsunami, with the required quality of service and numerous innovative services, to make able to survive.
