Ben Uzor Jr
Nigeria’s envisaged migration to a data (internet) service dominated
market is happening at a rather slow pace with telecommunications operators
still generating significant revenue from voice services. It is estimated that
about N291.2 billion was spent by subscribers on phone calls in the first quarter
of 2012. Recent statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals
that the total number of active telephone subscriptions in Nigeria has reached
99.14 million as at the end of March, 2012. This figure however represents the
combined active subscriptions obtained on Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM) networks, the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and the
fixed wired/wireless networks in the country.
Industry analysts told Business Day at the weekend that this
statistics clearly shows that there still exist tremendous opportunities in the
voice segment of Nigeria’s highly competitive market, and perhaps explains why
much has not been done in the area of data service. This, according to them, is
even with the growing number of submarine cable systems on the shore. London-based
research firm, Pyramid Research highlighted that revenues generated by the
telecoms industry amounted to $8.6 billion in 2010. This, according to the firm
shows an increase of 6.7 percent over the revenues generated by operators the
previous year. Going forward, Pyramid Research predicted that revenues would
hit $11 billion (N1.7 trillion) by 2013.
Over 90 percent of this revenue, according to industry analyst
would come from voice services, adding that this would change before long as
operators, federal government and other stakeholders in the industry works
collectively to strengthen investment in the area of deploying in-land fibre
networks needed to move available bandwidth capacity around the length and
breadth of the country. The estimated amount spent on phone calls in Q1 is
based on the current Average Revenue per User (ARPU) in the country, which
industry watchers put at around N1, 000. ARPU refers to the financial benchmark
used globally by telecoms companies to measure the average monthly or yearly
revenue generated from an average subscriber.
It was gathered that with an ARPU of N1, 000 subscriber base of
96,150,836, telecoms subscribers parted away with N96.15bn for phone calls;
while in February, when there were 96,616,580 active telephone lines in the
country, an estimated N96.61 billion was spent by telecom subscribers. In
March, 2012, the spending of telecoms subscribers on phone calls was estimated
at N99.14 billion; bringing the total telecoms consumer expenditure on phone
calls in first quarter of 2012, spanning January, February and March at N291.2
billion. Besides, Lanre Ajayi, president of the Association of
Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) told Business Day that telcos
revenue from data services is increasing significantly.
“Today, there are a lot of people carrying their internet dongles.
We have over 45 million internet users. I don’t know why we are still stuck on
mobile access when the fixed line access should have been the primary source of
connecting to the internet. We need to stimulate demand by getting our schools,
hospitals and homes connected to the internet. We need to get government
services online. We need to move our businesses online. Commenting on the
increasing reliance of Nigerians on telecoms services, Deolu Ogunbanjo, president
of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), said “The
increasing spend of telecoms subscribers on their various network is a
reflection o the importance of the service to our daily activities.”He
challenged the telecoms operators to improve the quality of service on their
networks while asking the federal government to also help address the
challenges being faced the operators in expanding their network for improved
services.
First published on Monday 11 June 2012
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