( 3 minutes read)
· The Nigerian telecommunication space has always been crowded in an unprecedented manner.
· This time around the competition is let loose mainly by the fringe players and they are catching up fast with large players like MTN and Airtel.
· In May 2020, a small operator Globalcom took on big players and became the telco with the highest number of subscribers in a month
· It gained over 8 million data subscribers
The Nigerian telecommunication space has always been crowded in an unprecedented manner. This time around the competition is let loose mainly by the fringe players. They are catching up fast with large players like MTN and Airtel.
In May 2020, a small operator Globalcom took on big players and became the telco with the highest number of subscribers in a month. It gained over 8 million data subscribers. The indigenous company grew the subscriber base from 28.94 million in December 2019 to 37.236 million by the end of May 2020. The gain by MTN was only 4.75 million data subscribers. Airtel, which is the second largest operator has registered an increase of only 2.795 million subscribers. The growth of Globalcom coincided with the loss of a subscriber base for many other companies. Nine mobile companies have lost 812,827 subscribers.
Incidentally, Airtel lost its second position as the second largest network in the country and has been pushed down by Globalcom in terms of its data subscriber base. While the domestic company Globalcom managed to increase its subscriber base from 34.2 million in May 2020 to 37.97 million by the end of June 2020, the Indian owned Airtel managed to increase its base from 37.32 million to 37.57 million within the same period.
