Glo Grows Mobile Market Share To 24%, Ramps Up 5m New Subscribers In 1 Year

National telecommunications operator, Globacom, which has for the past one and half years been the preferred data services provider has also emerged the first choice of subscribers in voice services. The company recorded 68% of all  additional GSM lines in the country in the last 12 months.

Telecom industry statistics published on the website of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)  showed that a total of 7,477,977 new lines were activated between June 2015 and June 2016, with Globacom recording a whopping 5,063,895 new susbcribers, representing 68%, while Airtel added 2,414,082 new customers.

On the contrary, MTN and Etisalat had their GSM subscriber figures whittled down. While Etisalat lost 382,336 customers, MTN's subscriber base was depleted by 4, 403,344 in the last one year.

Details of the NCC report showed that, with the feat achieved by Globacom, the data grandmaster has now grown its market share from 21% to 24% with 36.3m subscribers at the end of June, 2016. But, MTN which once had over 45% share of the market had this reduced to 39% at the end of June with 58.4m subscribers. Glo had a total of 31,256,677 customers by June 2015, whereas MTN had 62,813,111.

Significantly, while Glo has continued to narrow the gap between it and MTN, it has created a substantial gap between it and Airtel. Both Glo and Airtel were at par in terms of market share only three months ago with each having 21%.

But Airtel, whose subscriber base stood at 29,564,766 at the middle of last year, had 31,978,848 customers at the end of June 2016. This still keeps it at 21% share of the GSM market. On its part, Etisalat had 15% share with 22,469,896 customers at the end of June, 2016, down from 22,852,232 at the same time last year.

Globacom's lead in the voice segment of the industry complements it's status as clear leader in the data market where it has for the last one year remained tops in new internet subscriber acquisition.

In June 2016 for instance, while the industry gained a total of 318, 008 new internet subscribers, Globacom alone had 272,674 of the new customers. In essence, Globacom accounted for about 86 percent of the total internet subscriber acquisitions in the industry in the month of June.

It is believed that Globacom's unparalleled growth even in the midst of shrinking economy is the dividend of the massive network upgrade it carried out recently as well as its commitment to offering innovative products and services.