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

Synopsis

Nigeria has Africa’s largest mobile market, with about 149 million subscribers and a penetration rate of 107%. The initial rapid growth in the number of subscribers led to problems with network congestion and quality of service, prompting the telecom regulator to impose fines and sanctions on the network operators. These have responded by investing billions of dollars in base stations and fibre optic transmission infrastructure to support the ever increasing demand for bandwidth. Although GSM technology still dominates there is a growing shift to services based on LTE.

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. Competition of voice pricing has encouraged operators to develop new revenue streams from mobile broadband and data services, including m-payments and m-banking.

Although the market is one of the most competitive in Africa, the industry regulator in 2013 applied a price floor on voice and data tariffs in a bid to prevent the dominant operators from squeezing competitors. This price floor was reduced in November 2016 but swiftly retracted.

Following years of delay, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was introduced in 2013, and this has stimulated market competitiveness.

Key developments:

Etisalat defaults on loan payments, ordered to transfer 45% holding in Etisalat Nigeria to loan trustees and is rebranded as 9Mobile; 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; MTN Nigeria delays IPO to 2018; government prepares legislation to enforce 9% tax on electronic communications services; Visafone acquired by MTN Nigeria, trials LTE in the 800MHz band; NatCom Consortium launches LTE-A services; additional base stations installed under the USPF program; Airtel Nigeria and Etisalat sell tower infrastructure; Smile Communications extends LTE; government cracks down on substandard mobile devices; report update includes operator data to Q1 2017, regulator’s market data updates to April 2017, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

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

1. Synopsis
2. Market analysis
3. Mobile statistics
- 3.1 General statistics
- 3.2 Mobile voice
  - 3.2.1 VoLTE
- 3.3 Mobile data
  - 3.3.1 SMS
  - 3.3.2 Premium-rate SMS, interactive TV (iTV)
  - 3.3.3 MMS
- 3.4 Mobile broadband
- 3.5 Forecasts – mobile subscribers – 2018; 2020; 2022
  - 3.5.1 Notes on scenario forecasts
4. Regulatory issues
- 4.1 GSM licence terms
- 4.2 Spectrum
  - 4.2.1 3.5GHz
  - 4.2.2 800MHz
  - 4.2.3 700MHz
  - 4.2.4 2.3GHz
  - 4.2.5 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz
  - 4.2.6 450MHz
  - 4.2.7 3.5GHz
  - 4.2.8 5.4GHz
  - 4.2.9 3G mobile spectrum
- 4.3 Interconnection
- 4.4 Mobile tariffs
- 4.5 Unified licensing regime
- 4.6 Universal service
- 4.7 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
- 4.8 Quality of Service
- 4.9 SIM card registration
5. Mobile infrastructure
- 5.1 International gateways
- 5.2 National mobile infrastructure plan
- 5.3 Tower infrastructure
- 5.4 Analogue networks
- 5.5 Digital networks
  - 5.5.1 GSM
  - 5.5.2 3G/UMTS
  - 5.5.3 Long-term Evolution (LTE)
- 5.6 Other infrastructure developments
  - 5.6.1 GPRS, EDGE
  - 5.6.2 WAP
  - 5.6.3 CDMA2000 1x
  - 5.6.4 Satellite mobile
6. Major GSM mobile operators
- 6.1 MTN Nigeria
  - 6.1.1 Network infrastructure
  - 6.1.2 National backbone network
- 6.2 Bharti Airtel (formerly Zain/Celtel Nigeria)
  - 6.2.1 Network infrastructure and coverage
  - 6.2.2 National backbone network
- 6.3 Globacom
  - 6.3.1 Network infrastructure and coverage
  - 6.3.2 Fibre optic backbone network
- 6.4 9Mobile (Etisalat Nigeria, EMTS, Mubadala)
- 6.5 M-Tel
7. Major CDMA mobile operators
- 7.1 Multi-Links Telkom
- 7.2 Reliance Telecommunications (Reltel, Zoom)
- 7.3 Starcomms (Capcom)
  - 7.3.1 Merger with Multi-Links and MTS First Wireless
- 7.4 InterC Network (Intercellular Nigeria)
- 7.5 Visafone
  - 7.5.1 Cell Communications (Cellcom)
  - 7.5.2 Bourdex Telecommunications
8. Mobile content and applications
- 8.1 Mobile money transfer, m-banking
- 8.2 M-health
- 8.3 Mobile TV
9. Handset manufacturing
10. Related reports

Table 1 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1998 - 2009
Table 2 – Mobile subscribers (active) and penetration rate – 2010 – 2018
Table 3 – Mobile market share of subscribers by operator (GSM) – 2011 - 2017
Table 4 – Prepaid mobile subscribers – 2010 - 2016
Table 5 – Installed mobile base stations by GSM operator – 2013 - 2014
Table 6 – Installed mobile base stations by CDMA operator – 2013 - 2014
Table 7 – SMS traffic – 2006 - 2016
Table 8 – Mobile internet subscribers in Nigeria by operator (GSM) – 2012 - 2017
Table 9 – Active mobile broadband subscribers – 2010 - 2017
Table 10 – Forecast mobile subscribers in Nigeria – 2018; 2020; 2022
Table 11 – Outgoing mobile number portings – 2013 - 2017
Table 12 – GSM subscribers in Nigeria – 2014 - 2017
Table 13 – MTN mobile subscribers – 2011 - 2017
Table 14 – MTN Nigeria financial data – 2010 - 2016
Table 15 – MTN Nigeria revenue by type – 2015 - 2016
Table 16 – MTN Nigeria ARPU – 2002 - 2017
Table 17 – Airtel mobile subscribers – 2011 - 2017
Table 18 – Globacom mobile subscribers – 2011 - 2017
Table 19 – Etisalat mobile subscribers – 2011 - 2017
Table 20 – Etisalat mobile revenue and capex – 2013 - 2017
Table 21 – CDMA subscribers by operator – 2011 - 2017
Table 22 – Starcomms mobile subscribers – 2005 – 2014
Table 23 – Visafone mobile subscribers – 2009; 2013 - 2017