9mobile Loses Over 900,000 Subscribers In One Month

 

9mobile continues to lose subscribers month after month, with its most recent being the over 900,000 subscribers it lost in the space of a month. This means that the telecommunication company has now lost subscribers for eleven months straight, as the network provider continues to struggle while MTN Nigeria loses more subscribers to rivals, Globacom and Airtel.

This led to the total number of its telephone service subscribers to drop to 12.2 million from 13.1 million as the network provider continues to struggle while its rivals MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel gain.

The last time 9mobile increased its telephone service subscriber base was March 2019, when it recorded 16.8 million subscribers, The current figure, 12.2 million, was for February 2020 according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) latest data, declining from January's 13.1 million.

While 9mobile lost subscribers in between January and February, Visafone lost over a thousand subscribers within the same period, dropping from 138,144 in January 2020 to 137,086 the next month.

Gainers in the telecoms market

The second-largest market shareholder in telecoms industry, Globacom gained the smallest - over 48,700 - within the same period, after growing its subscriber base for telephone service from 51.7 million to 51.8 million.

Airtel gained about 490,000 subscribers for its telephone service within the same period. Airtel, which has the third-largest market share, saw a jump in its subscriber base after recording 50.4 million in February from 49.9 million in January. MTN Nigeria recorded the highest growth with over 1.7 million subscribers added in February.

According to the NCC data, MTN Nigeria's subscriber base for telephone service increased from 70.6 million in January, to 72.4 million in February. Meanwhile, Visafone lost over a thousand subscribers with the same period, dropping from 138,144 to 137,086.

The combined subscriber base of 9mobile, Airtel, Globacom, MTN Nigeria and Visafone took the number of telecoms subscriber to 187.1 million, the NCC data seen by Allnew showed.

Data war in the telecoms industry

Just like the telephone market, MTN Nigeria is the market leader in the data segment. The Y'ello telco is winning the data war having gained over 960,000 subscribers to take its data subscribers tally to 56.4 million in February, from 55.2 million in January; cementing its top spot in the industry.

Airtel continues to chase MTN Nigeria's spot on the table, gaining over 670,400 data subscribers to take its total number of active data subscribers to 36.1 million in February, from the 35.5 million subscribers in January 2020. Globacom trail Airtel with 30.9 million subscribers, having gained 1.7 million data subscribers to move from 29.2 million January.

Meanwhile, 9mobile continued to lose subscribers even in the data segment, after it ended February with 7.9 million data subscribers from the 8 million it accounted for in January, having lost over 96,200 data subscribers. Visafone also joined 9mobile in the losers table dropping from over 90,100 to 88,800 within the same period.

The combined subscribers of the four data providers took the total active data subscribers to 131.6 million.

Porting activities of subscribers

In a plot twist, during the February period, 9mobile was the highest gainer of subscribers' porting activities despite losing subscribers in the telephone and data segment. 9mobile recorded 5,371 subscribers port to its service from other network providers, while it lost 2,067 subscribers to its rivals in the same month,

Airtel was the second highest gainer, after 4,580 subscribers of its rivals port to use its service, while 2,914 dumped Airtel to pitch tent under other network providers in February. MTN Nigeria came next behind Airtel, having recorded 2,515 subscribers port to its service from other telcos, while MTN Nigeria lost the highest subscribers in the porting segment after 3,986 left its network to join its rivals.

Meanwhile, Globacom recorded the lowest number of subscribers that ported from other telco services. Globacom only recorded 251 joining its network, while 3,197 subscribers dumped Glo to join its market rivals in February 2020.