Nigeria’s phone connections increase by one million in a month

According to the latest figures released yesterday, the total number of active connections in Nigeria – including both mobile and fixed-line – stood at 110.3 million at the end of November 2012, a significant growth on October, when there were 109.5 million active subscribers.

The number of active GSM mobile users grew from 105.9 million at the end of October, to 106.8 million by the end of the following month, accounting for the majority of the total number of active connections in Nigeria.

Active CDMA mobile lines and fixed-line connections, however, both fell. Active CDMA mobile lines stood at three million at the end of November, down from 3.1 million at the end of October, while fixed-line connections shrank to 433,000 from 455,000 a month earlier.

The statistics show that trends in terms of active subscribers and the types of preferred connections which emerged throughout 2012 have continued through to the end of the year.

Statistics for the total number of active connections at the start of the year showed that at month-end January 2012, Nigeria played host to 96.2 million active lines. This figure grew at a stable pace month-on-month across the whole year.

Similarly, the number of active GSM lines has grown steadily across the past year, emerging as the favoured method of connection among consumers. At the end of January 2012, there were 91 million active GSM users – a figure that has grown by over a million users monthly since then.

CDMA mobile connections have declined consistently over the space of the year, falling from 4.4 million at the end of January 2012 to November’s figure of three million.

The widespread move away from fixed-line prevalent across the African continent is also very apparent in the Nigerian data, active fixed lines having numbered 688,000 at the start of last year but falling to 433,000 by end-November.