Nigeria: The Government Commits to Increasing Mobile Broadband Penetration to 70% by 2021

Sydney, Feb. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of Paul Budde Communication’s focus report on Nigeria outlines the major developments and key aspects in the telecoms markets.
Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Nigeria-Mobile-Infrastructure-Operators-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses

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.

Table of Contents

• Market analysis
• Mobile statistics
  • General statistics
  • Mobile voice
    • VoLTE
  • Mobile data
    • SMS
    • MMS
  • 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 – 2019
• 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 – 2019
• 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 – 2017 – 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

Nicolas Bombourg
nbombourg@budde.com.au

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