Nigerian Telecoms Overview

Not too long ago – about 10 years to be precise – Nigeria only had 400,000 connected lines from the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).

NITEL was the principal telecommunications company owned by the Federal Government and responsible for all wired telecommunications in the country before the advent of the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications services.

Today, Nigeria is in the midst of an era of globalisation and high-speed communication.

Trends and means of telecommunications are changing fast; having positive effect on the overall economy of the country.

The level-playing field provided by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has resulted in substantial increase in competition spanning a wide spectrum of telecoms services.

Over the years, the industry has been swept up in innovation, facing a plethora of challenges like poor quality of service, competition, churn and decline in voice calls; mobile Internet is gradually replacing voice as staple business.

Advances in network technology led to this development. Telecom is now less about voice and increasingly about text and images.

High-speed internet access, which delivers computer-based data applications such as broadband information services and interactive entertainment is rapidly making its way into homes and businesses across the world. The fastest growth comes from services delivered over mobile networks.

With so many players in the market, competitors rely heavily on price to slug it out for market share while success rests largely on brand name, strength and heavy investment in efficient billing systems.

Currently, there are over 114 million connected lines – up from 98,000 in April last year; with teledensity of 64 per cent as at January, up from 56 per cent in April last year. This is an increase of 16 million in total connected lines and eight per cent leap in teledensity in only nine months.

Analysis of...