Telecommunications operators in Nigeria comprising MTN, Airtel, Globacom, 9mobile, and a number of other web service suppliers, are set to rake in additional income this Christmas season as Nigerians improve the amount of calls and knowledge utilization.
Regardless of the financial downturn and excessive inflation that has seen folks minimize their budgets for different important festive interval wants like journey and clothes, telecommunications providers, particularly knowledge, appear to be on the precedence record of many Nigerians.
For a lot of who will be unable to journey as a result of excessive value of transportation, video calls have grow to be a veritable means to attach with family members.
Based mostly on the previous monetary data of MTN and Airtel, two of the main telcos within the nation, elevated subscriber spending in December has at all times positively impacted their This autumn income over time.
Except for a rise in calls to want household and associates nicely, extra knowledge is normally consumed round this era by folks sharing messages and movies by way of totally different platforms in commemoration of the season.
Knowledge as the primary income driver
As of August 2023, knowledge launched by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) already indicated a surge in knowledge consumption by Nigerians. This truth was conspicuously mirrored in MTN and Airtel’s Q3 2023 monetary outcomes.
Particularly, MTN, the biggest telecom operator in Nigeria by subscriber quantity recorded N279.5 billion as knowledge income between July and September this yr. This represents 38.9% in contrast with the N201.1 billion it recorded in the identical interval final yr. In accordance with Airtel Africa’s monetary consequence for the quarter ended September 2023, Airtel Nigeria earned N123.7 billion ($157 million) from knowledge subscriptions. This additionally represents a 29.3% development in knowledge income for the corporate.
In accordance with the Chief Government Officer of MTN, Karl Toriola, the rise in knowledge utilization was supported by the revamp of MTN knowledge bundle choices, a rise within the penetration of smartphones, and investments in its community to develop protection and capability and improve buyer expertise.
- “Our 4G community now covers 80.5% of the inhabitants, up from 79.1% in December 2022. Knowledge utilization (GB per consumer) grew by 29.1% to eight.6GB, and the variety of smartphones on our community elevated by 7.6%, bringing smartphone penetration to 53.4%, up 1. Consequently, we recorded a 46.3% development in knowledge site visitors, with the 4G community accounting for 83.7% of the overall site visitors,” Toriola acknowledged.
On his half, the CEO of Airtel Africa, Segun Ogunsanya, additionally famous that Airtel Nigeria recorded a major improve in knowledge consumption in the course of the evaluation interval.
- “Airtel Nigeria’s data income grew by 29.3% in fixed foreign money, pushed by knowledge buyer base development of 17.4% and knowledge Common Income Per Consumer (ARPU) development of 12.3%. Knowledge utilization per buyer elevated by 23.8% to five.9GB per thirty days (from 4.8GB within the prior interval).
- “Our continued 4G community rollout has resulted in practically 100% of all our websites delivering 4G providers. Moreover, 233 5G websites at the moment are operational. For the Q2’24 interval, 4G prospects accounted for 51.1% of our whole knowledge buyer base and contributed to 85.3% of whole knowledge utilization. Q2’24 4G knowledge utilization per buyer reached 11.7 GB per thirty days, a rise of 41.3% (from 8.3 GB per buyer per thirty days in Q2’23),” he stated.
This Christmas interval, knowledge consumption is predicted to spike throughout all networks. Business specialists famous that the Christmas season provides subscribers extra time to discover social media and watch movies that devour their knowledge. And by doing this, many spend extra on knowledge than they normally do, with out even realizing it.
The driving forces
In accordance with the President of the Nationwide Affiliation of Telecoms Subscribers, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, there are various components pushing telecom subscribers to spend extra on calls and knowledge each December.
Whereas noting that Nigerians like to speak loads and felicitate with folks over the telephone, he stated the shift to WhatsApp calls and different app-based calls versus common telephone calls is pushing consumption extra in direction of knowledge.
- “Except for our penchant for speaking and greeting folks on the telephone for Christmas, December is at all times a vacation interval and this permits folks to spend extra time on social media, particularly, a video platform like TikTok. These result in a rise within the consumption of knowledge. Once more, lots of people will need to respect their prospects on the finish of the yr and so they do that by way of social media both with Video or footage.
- “Curiously, that is additionally the time the telecom operators normally provide you with one promo or the opposite, which inspires folks to spend extra. It’s a win-win for the subscribers and the telecom operators.”
He, nonetheless, famous that the elevated variety of calls and messages in the course of the Christmas interval typically results in poor high quality of service.
- “The issue is that this at all times impacts the standard of service. When all people is making calls, and sending messages on the similar time, the standard of service turns into poor,” he stated.
NCC’s knowledge
The newest business knowledge from the telecom regulator, NCC, revealed that web customers in Nigeria consumed 655,879.86 terabytes of knowledge in August this yr. The info launched by the telecom regulator indicated that there was a gradual rise within the quantity of knowledge being consumed within the nation. The August utilization represented a 6.6% rise in comparison with 615,207.39 terabytes consumed in July.
