Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown that active subscriptions for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service in Nigeria increased by 3.5% to 354,449 between January and October this year.
As of December 2021, subscriptions for the service, which is otherwise referred to as IP Telephony or Internet Telephony, stood at 342,473.
Only one gainer: While two operators are playing in the VoIP market in Nigeria namely Smile Communications and Ntel, only Smile gained more subscriptions in the period under review. The company gained 19,294 new subscriptions in the period, bringing its total subscriptions to 333,968 in October this year from 314,674 in December 2021.
Ntel, on the other hand, lost 7,315 customers in the period under review, bringing its total subscriptions to 20,481 from 27,799 in December last year.
NCC’s data showed that Ntel which joined the VoIP segment in January 2017, became the larger operator by subscriptions in just four months as its active subscriptions hit 61,817 in April 2017, while Smile was second with 42,308 subscriptions. Ntel has, however, lost most of its subscribers in the last 5 years.
What you should know: VoIP service allows its users to seamlessly communicate over the internet without the need for telephones. However, subscription to this service is still very low in Nigeria.
- The VoIP service remained one of the least subscribed in the Nigerian telecoms market. According to NCC’s data, the GSM technology accounts for 99.84 per cent of the market share in terms of subscriptions as of October 2022, leaving VoIP service with 0.12% and fixed wired service with 0.05% share of the market.
- Analysts attributed the low VoIP subscriptions in Nigeria to the proliferation of Over-the-Top services (OTTs) such as Whatsapp, and Facebook, among several others, which also allow voice and video calls over the internet. This means that with a subscription for data, which is mostly done on mobile networks, subscribers can make calls using the OTT platforms.
- The adoption of Voice over IP is observed across various industries worldwide, especially in developing regions to cater to their growing demand for everyday business activities. With its real-time communication services, it has helped organisations across various industries to lower communication costs.
- The global VoIP market was valued at $77.4 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $93.2 billion by the end of 2024, growing at a CAGR of 3.1% between 2019 and 2024.
