Telcos add 5.64 million voice and data subscribers in Q3 2019 – NBS 

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The number of active voice subscribers increased by 5.15 million to 179.17 million in the third quarter of 2019 from 174.02 million in the second quarter.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its latest telecommunications data report released on Monday, disclosed that the increase in the number of active voice subscribers indicated a 2.96% on a quarter on quarter basis, while a 10.58% increase was recorded when compared with Q3 2018 (year on year).

The Bureau also stated that a total of 123.16 million subscribers were active on the Internet as against 122.67 million in the second quarter and 103,514,997 in Q3 2018. This represented 0.40% growth in internet subscriptions Quarter on Quarter and 18.98% Year on Year.

The breakdown  

•  Lagos State has the highest number of active voice subscribers with 23.56 million within the period.
• Lagos was closely followed by Ogun and Kano States with 10.63 million and 6.9 million active voice subscribers respectively.
• However, Bayelsa and Ebonyi states had the least number of subscribers with 925,489 and 1.63 million active voice subscribers respectively.
• Lagos State has the highest number of subscribers in terms of active internet per State in Q3 2019 with 16.87 million.

Meanwhile, the Bureau disclosed that MTN had the highest share of voice subscription, closely followed by Globacom and Airtel respectively, adding that MTN had the highest share of Internet subscription and followed by Airtel and Globacom respectively.

[READ MORE: Poor service: 19,977 subscribers lodge complaints against Telcos)

As earlier published on Nairametrics, MTN recently edged out Airtel for the first time in 5 months, gaining a total of 488,120 internet subscribers. In spite of the rise in MTN’s number of internet subscribers, it still pales in comparison to the over 2.4 million internet subscribers added in May 2019. MTN now has 52,163,778 subscribers. Airtel, which had led the way in recent months in terms of gainers, had recorded a slight drop.