Nigeria’s internet subscriptions hit 152 million in July 2022

Subscriptions for internet across mobile, fixed and VoIP networks in the country increased to 152 million in July this year. The latest industry data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals that a total of 1 million new subscriptions were recorded by telecom operators in the month to achieve the new height.

As of June 2022, internet subscriptions in the country stood at 151 million.

The NCC’s data shows that the mobile network operators, MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile maintained their dominance of the internet market accounting for 151.4 million of the total subscriptions. VoIP operators, Smile Communications and Ntel accounted for 366, 271 subscriptions while 14,716 were on fixed wired networks of 21st Century and iPNX. Other internet service providers (ISPs) in the country accounted for 210,597 active subscriptions.

Meanwhile, subscriptions to broadband, that is, high-speed internet service, also rose to 84.9 million in July from 84.6 million recorded in June this year. This brought the country’s broadband penetration to 44.49%.

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Internet subscriptions by operator

• MTN Nigeria which is the largest operator by subscriber number maintained its leadership position as it gained in July. However, the operator recorded a 68,177 decline in its internet subscriptions, which brought its database to 63.7 million from the 63.8 million it recorded in June.
• Airtel also retained its second position in terms of internet subscriptions in July, even though it recorded a decline in its internet customer database. The telecom operators lost 388,307 subscriptions in the month under review, which reduced its database to 41.3 million from 41.7 million in June.
• The NCC data showed that the increase in subscriptions for July was driven solely by Globacom, which gained 1.3 million new subscriptions to offset the losses recorded by others. Globacom’s internet subscriptions increased from 39.9 million in June to 41.2 million at the end of July.
• Like MTN and Airtel, 9mobile’s internet subscription also declined in the month. The telecom operator lost 204,309 subscriptions, which brought its internet customer database to 5.03 million at the end of July 2022.