Only 110,000 of 151million active telecom subscribers in
the country have so far upgraded to the fourth Generation/Long Term Evolution
technology, more than 10 months after a commercial launch in the country by
four mobile operators, recent finding has shown.
A 4G/LTE technology is designed to provide up to ten
times the broadband internet speeds of third generation technology for mobile
devices.
Considering the huge number of phone users on 3G
technology, experts said the 4G tech may have started sluggishly in Nigeria,
portending a business risk for the telecom operators.
The latest Monthly Subscriber/Operator Data released by
the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), recently
showed that MTN had 58m users, and Glo had 37m customers, and Airtel had 34m
customers while 9mobile 19m users.
The remaining figures were shared between the other
smaller operators.
But only 92m of
the 151m subscribers are active internet users, and they depend on data
provided by the telcos to access the world- wide-web and hook on to the social
media, information on the NCC’s website show.
Out of the figure, a paltry 110,000 across the country is
on 4G, according to findings from NCC and industry experts.
An industry source said that of the 110,000 on 4G
networks, MTN has about 50% of it, with Glo trailing behind it with about 40%
while Airtel, 9mobile, Ntel and other smaller operators share the remaining 10
%.
South Africa (63 % 4G coverage) , Morocco (60% 4G
coverage ) and Tunisia (54% 4G coverage ) are the leading countries in Africa
in the 4G technology ranking of some 80 countries across the world by OpenSignal,
a global broadband advocacy group. Nigeria didn’t make the rank.
China has 4G network in most of its country, now it is
working on 5G mobile network. “And it is nearly done”, Mr Zhao Linxiang, a
Chinese envoy in Nigeria said.
“That may
explain why millions of Nigerians are yet to use the new technology”, Deolu
Ogunbanjo, a telecom activist said
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