Nigeria’s active mobile telephone users increased to 160 million in April, with Internet users reaching 101.2 million in the same period, up from 100.6 million recorded in April.
Unfortunately, 9mobile and Globacom failed to partake in the growth as they reportedly lost a combined total of 471,782 of their internet mobile subscribers.
According to a recent report by the National Communication Corporation, MTN Nigeria gained the most Internet subscribers in April, having recorded an additional 718,803 new users; thereby increasing its total subscription to about 38.1 million. This was up from 37.4 million recorded in April.
Airtel took the lead, behind MTN Nigeria, recording an additional 366,254 new users; thereby increasing its total subscription to about 25.8 million. This was up from 25.4 million recorded in April.
Globacom, on the other hand, lost the most subscribers, with as many as 321,497 users leaving its network in April. This puts the company’s total number of subscribers at about 26.3 million, down from about 26.6 million in March.
Globacom is followed by embattled 9mobile, which lost 150,285 internet users, with its total number of active subscribers reducing to about 10.8 million, down from 10.9 million recorded rcently.
Speaking with globacom and 9mobile Internet subscribers, some of them complained of poor network coverage and expensive data fee.
Mr. Shola Adediji, a Globacom subscriber, said the Glo network coverage.
“Glo is frustrating, very frustrating and most subscribers can attest to this. In fact, the network is losing subscribers in hundreds by the day and yet it doesn’t care,” he said.
Another glo subscriber, Miss Folakemi Adenuga, said the average Nigerian was always looking out for the cheapest data and Globacom was undoubtedly the cheapest; but she added that affordability would not always translate into value.
She said, “Globacom has exceeded some milestones in terms of data affordability and in the onset, the cheapness of the data lured countless subscribers to the Network.”
She added that the problem with Globacom data was that it was unavailable where it was hyped to be available.
“No network is 100 per cent available in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria but Glo’s is a special case,” she noted.
However, 9mobile subscribers complained of expensive data subscription.
Bimbola Ashiru, a 9mobile subscriber, said it was as though the network was using subscriptions to pay off the debt it owed
banks.
“I was really enjoying 9mobile services when they came up, but recently, since its debt issue, the network has been misbehaving; it is no longer reliable,” Ashiru
complained.
