Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Internet data traffic in Nigeria creates competition - Expert

Anthony Nwakaegho/DigitalSENSE Business News

The Senior Research Analyst, Informa, Thecia Mbongue has said that budding Internet data traffic in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector has created competition on the various Mobile Networks.

Mbongue speaking to DigitalSENSE Business News at the NigeriaCom 2013, which held in Lagos, noted that with fastest growing subscriber base of about 120 million active lines, Nigerian market has opened a new vista for mobile competition on the continent and the country particularly.

Also in her presentation on the topic entitled “Informa market overview: Latest Developments, Trends and Remaining Challenges,” said that Nigeria market with 120,362,218 active lines as at end of July, 2013, represents 18 per cent with 70 per cent penetration in the mid 2013, whereas MTN Nigeria dominates the market.

Mbongue said the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) which is a consumer right and game changer in Nigeria has not impacted on the market share as the people are either on pre-paid and using more than one Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card.

She pointed out to DigitalSENSE Business News that there are about 48 million data users in SIM, 20 million SIM card device and 20 million on phones, and that the rise in data is as a result of lower prices in devices.

She further said that Nigerians spend an average of $3, about N480 a month, while 15 per cent is generated as revenue from data and 15 per cent across Africa.

Mbongue explained that even though Third Generation (3G) is being re-enforced within the country, Africa still has the challenges that borders on Quality of Service (QoS).

DigitalSENSE Business News also gathered from Mbongue that the telecom operators, MTN and Etisalat have been making constant investment, even as they have so far spent about $3 billion and $1.2 billion respectively in 2013 in their network expansion.

As said by her, local content is the key driver which is something that could help Nigerians to navigate more when the related apps are available.

Stressing that the lesson from India and Brazil to Nigeria is that of regulation that cut across the countries, emphasising “Nigeria is best regulated, more proactive as other country’s regulator decides on the number of SIM one should use. In Nigeria the unified license introduced by the regulator took care of all that.”

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