December 2, 2024
  • December 2, 2024
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February 28, 2023

Telcos activate 3.6m new SIMs as NIMC issues 1.5m NINs

By Upfrontdigital News 0 419 Views

By Staff Reporter

TELECOMS operators activated 3.6 million new Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards in January. This subsequently pushed active telephone lines in the country from 222.5 million in December 2022 to 226 million a month after.

With this new development, connected telephone lines in Nigeria are now 322 million and teledensity peaked at 118.5 per cent.

Teledensity is telephone connections per 100 people in a specified geographic area. Teledensity is often used to compare the level of access to voice and data communications services between metropolitan and rural areas, or between one country and another.

Subscription statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commissions (NCC), the January edition, released Monday, showed that MTN increased its reach by servicing 91.1 million telecoms users with 40.71 per cent penetration; Airtel with 26.81 per cent market coverage, has 60.5 million subscribers.

Globacom is third with 60.3 million customers and 26.71 per cent national reach, while 9mobile maintained its 13 million customers and 5.77 per cent penetration.

Danbatta, NCC EVC

Internet coverage showed that on the GSM platforms, 155.6 million Nigerians surfed the web, while via the Fixed Wired platform 16, 144; ISP (Wired/Wireless) 204,810 and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 348,236, which brings the total to 156.22 million.

Broadband coverage showed that Nigeria now has 48.2 per cent penetration with some 92 million Nigerians with access to the service.

MEANWHILE, the number of National Identity Number (NIN) issued to Nigerians by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) increased by 1.5 million in February as the figure rose from 95 million in January to 96.5 million one month after.

In the new data, 54.6 million (56.5 per cent) males and 41.9 million females, which is 43.5 per cent now have NINs.

The highest cumulative enrolment figure of over 10.63 million was recorded in Lagos State. Kano is next with 8.4 million; Kaduna 5.7 million; Ogun 4.1 million; Oyo 3.8 million and Abuja 3.3 million.

Others are Katsina 3.3 million; Rivers 2.9 million; Bauchi 2.6 million and Delta 2.58 million. The bottom 10 states are Kogi 1.67 million; Akwa Ibom 1.65 million; Imo 1.62 million; Enugu 1.55 million; Yobe 1.46 million. Others are Taraba 1.42 million; Cross-River 1.10 million; Ekiti 990,463; Ebonyi 774,263 and Bayelsa 611,229.

Aziz, NIMC DG

According to NIMC, diaspora issuance is now 366, 164 with 156, 651 females and 209, 513 males.

IN a related development, Nokia has been selected by MTN South Africa (MTN SA) for the first time ever as one of its 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment providers.

Under the deal, Nokia will modernize the existing 2G/3G/4G radio network and expand MTN’s 5G-radio network across 2800 sites in the Central and Eastern part of the country – driving digitalization across the African continent. MTN SA is part of MTN Group Limited, Africa’s largest mobile network operator with operations in 17 countries serving 272 million subscribers.

5G Mast

Nokia will provide equipment from its next-generation, energy-efficient AirScale portfolio – powered by its latest generation of ReefShark chipsets – including 5G AirScale baseband, massive MIMO active antennas and remote radio heads (RRH) covering all urban and rural scenarios. Nokia will also provide its Self-Organizing Networks (SON) solution for optimization and network assurance, ensuring MTN’s network continues to perform optimally. Nokia’s solutions will enable a superior 5G experience for mobile users with high bandwidth, ultra-fast speeds, and low latency.

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