Nigeria - Mobile Infrastructure, Operators and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Last updated: 18 Feb 2020 Update History

Report Status: Archived

Report Pages: 91

Lead Analyst: Henry Lancaster

Contributing Analyst: Peter Lange

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Summary
Table Of Contents

Synopsis

Nigeria has Africa’s largest mobile market, with about 173 million subscribers and a penetration rate of 123%. The number of subscribers fell in 2017 as consumers responded to a poor economic climate and as regulatory measures continued to oblige operators to disconnect unregistered SIM cards, though growth into 2019 was strong. The initial rapid growth in the number of subscribers had led to problems with network congestion and quality of service, prompting the regulator to impose fines and sanctions on network operators. These operators have responded by investing billions of dollars in base stations and fibre transmission infrastructure to support the increasing demand for data. The migration from the CDMA platform to GSM technology is almost complete, and though GSM still dominates the market there is a growing shift to services based on LTE. Although LTE coverage remains relatively low, investment among operators is extending the reach of services and is helping to develop consumer use of mobile data services.

Efforts are also being made to encourage network sharing and to outsource the management of tower infrastructure to third parties. There remains considerable growth potential in rural areas where the provision of network infrastructure and operations is expensive, and consequently where mobile penetration is lower. The government’s plan to increase broadband penetration to 70% by 2021 largely depends on mobile infrastructure.

Key developments:

MTN Nigeria launches services based on LTE-A;
SIM card registration policy revised;
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority suspends planned demolition of 8,800 mobile towers;
Office of the National Security Adviser establishes committees to deal with counterfeit mobile devices;
Visafone completes transfer of CDMA subscribers to GSM;
MTN and Airtel apply for Payment Service Bank licence;
Government commits to increasing mobile broadband penetration to 70% by 2021;
Disagreements emerge among new shareholders of 9Mobile;
Regulator calls for an additional 80,000 mobile base stations;
MTN Nigeria awarded spectrum in the 2.6GHz band for LTE use, extends licenses for spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands to August 2021;
New MTRs assigned;
Additional base stations installed under the USPF program;
Report update includes operator data to Q4 2019, regulator’s market data updates to December 2019, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

MTN Nigeria, Glo Mobile (Globacom), Bharti Airtel (formerly Zain, Celtel), 9Mobile (Etisalat Nigeria, EMTS, Mubadala), M-Tel (Nitel), Visafone, Starcomms (Capcom), Multi-Links, Reliance, InterC Network (Intercellular), Megatech Engineering (Zoda Fones), Telkom, Econet Wireless, Vodacom.

Market analysis
Mobile statistics

General statistics
Mobile voice

VoLTE

Mobile data

Mobile broadband

Regulatory issues

GSM licence terms
Spectrum

3.5GHz
800MHz
700MHz
2.3GHz
2.5GHz and 2.6GHz
450MHz
3.5GHz
5.4GHz
2GHz

Mobile Termnation Rate (MTR)
Mobile tariffs
Unified licensing regime
Universal service
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
Quality of Service
SIM card registration

Mobile infrastructure

International gateways
National mobile infrastructure plan
Tower infrastructure
Analogue networks
Digital networks

5G
4G (LTE)
3G/UMTS
2G

Other infrastructure developments

Satellite mobile

Major GSM mobile operators

MTN Nigeria

Backbone network

Airtel Nigeria

Backbone network

Globacom

Backbone network

9Mobile (Etisalat Nigeria, EMTS, Mubadala)
M-Tel

Major CDMA mobile operators

Multi-Links Telkom
Reliance Telecommunications (Reltel, Zoom)
Starcomms (Capcom)

Merger with Multi-Links and MTS First Wireless

InterC Network (Intercellular Nigeria)
Visafone

Cell Communications (Cellcom)
Bourdex Telecommunications

Mobile content and applications

Mobile money transfer, m-banking
M-health

Appendix – Historic data
Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 – Growth in the number of active mobile subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Table 2 – Change in the market share of subscribers by operator (GSM) – 2011 – 2019
Table 3 – Change in the number of prepaid mobile subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 4 – SMS traffic – 2006 – 2018
Table 5 – Mobile internet subscribers in Nigeria by operator (GSM) – 2012 – 2019
Table 6 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2024
Table 7 – Change in the number of outgoing mobile number portings – 2013 – 2018
Table 8 – Change in the number of GSM subscribers – 2014 – 2019
Table 9 – Change in the number of MTN Nigeria’s mobile subscriber base – 2011 – 2019
Table 10 – Change in MTN Nigeria’s revenue (Rand) – 2010 – 2019
Table 11 – Development of MTN Nigeria revenue by type (Rand) – 2015 – 2019
Table 12 – Development of MTN Nigeria’s financial data (NGN) – 2017 – 2019
Table 13 – Decline in MTN Nigeria’s mobile ARPU – 2009 – 2019
Table 14 – Growth in the number of Airtel Nigeria’s mobile subscribers – 2011 – 2019
Table 15 – Growth in the number of Globacom’s mobile subscriber base – 2011 – 2019
Table 16 – Change in the number of 9mobile’s mobile subscribers – 2011 – 2019
Table 17 – CDMA subscribers by operator – 2011 – 2019
Table 18 – Visafone mobile subscribers – 2013 – 2019
Table 19 – M-money inter-scheme transactions and value – 2010 – 2019
Table 20 – M-money inter-scheme transactions and value – 2017 – 2019
Table 21 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1998 – 2009
Table 22 – Historic - MTN Nigeria ARPU – 2002 – 2009

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Growth in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Chart 3 – Change in the number of prepaid mobile subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Chart 4 – Growth in SMS traffic – 2006 – 2019
Chart 5 – Growth in the number of mobile internet subscribers by operator (GSM) – 2012 – 2019
Chart 6 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers – 2010 – 2024
Chart 7 – Change in the number of outgoing mobile number portings – 2013 – 2019
Chart 8 – Change in the number of GSM subscribers – 2014 – 2019
Chart 9 – Change in the number of MTN Nigeria’s mobile subscriber base – 2011 – 2019
Chart 10 – Change in MTN Nigeria’s revenue (Rand) – 2010 – 2019
Chart 11 – Development of MTN Nigeria’s financial data (NGN) – 2017 – 2019
Chart 12 – Decline in MTN Nigeria’s mobile ARPU – 2009 – 2019
Chart 13 – Growth in the number of Airtel Nigeria’s mobile subscribers – 2011 – 2019
Chart 14 – Growth in the number of Globacom’s mobile subscriber base – 2011 – 2019
Chart 15 – Change in the number of 9mobile’s mobile subscribers – 2011 – 2019
Chart 16 – Change in m-money transactions and value – 2010 – 2019

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Nigeria - Mobile Infrastructure, Operators and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Purchase this Report

Synopsis

Key developments:

Companies mentioned in this report:

Market analysis

Mobile statistics

Regulatory issues

Mobile infrastructure

Major GSM mobile operators

Major CDMA mobile operators

Mobile content and applications

Appendix – Historic data

Related reports

Purchase this Report

Share this Report

TMT Intelligence

A platform to scale your intelligence tasks

Research Methodology

Hot Topics

News & Views