Nigeria’s connected phone lines hit 159.9m

BY February 2013, the total connected telephone lines in the country stood at 159.9 million. The total connected lines comprised service offerings from the GSM, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and the Fixed Wired/Wireless operators.

The latest industry statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the February report released yesterday, showed that the connected lines grew by 5.3 million from 154.5 million in January to 159.87 million in February.

Indeed, out of the 159.9 million connected lines, about 116.6 million are active.

The statistics revealed that the GSM operators, including MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat, which had 114. 4 million active subscribers in January, added about 2.2 million to their respective networks and by February, the figure climbed to 116.6 million.

The country’s teledensity, which is defined as the number of telephone connections for every hundred individuals living within an area, grew from 81.7 per cent in January to 83.2 per cent in February.