Internet Users In Nigeria Increases By 11.2million In 10 Months

Nigeria’s Mobile Network Operators gained about 11.15 million new active Internet users to reach 122.79 million in September this year, statistics obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission on Friday showed.

The statistics indicated that this represented 10 per cent growth from 111.63 million Internet users recorded in December last year.

According to the data, MTN and Airtel gained the highest number of Internet subscribers during the period under review while 9mobile lost some subscribers. New Internet users were added on the 800 MHz spectrum owned by MTN.

MTN added the highest number of new Internet users to its network with 7.78 million users in the 10 months, increasing its subscription in September to 51.68 million from 43.9 million in December last year.

Also, the network operator had 83,210 Internet users on the new 800MHz spectrum at the end of September.

A further analysis of the data indicated that Airtel followed with 3.44 million new Internet users, increasing its subscription to 33.20 million in September as against 29.76 million recorded in December.

9mobile lost about 1.45 million new Internet users as its subscription dropped to 8.47 million from 9.92 million in 10 months.

Globacom gained 1.31 million new Internet users in 10 months to reach 29.37 Internet subscribers in September from 28.05 users in December last year.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has been named among the top 10 countries with the most affordable Internet prices based on the monthly average income in the country.

Other countries on the continent with a low cost of accessing and using the Internet in Africa are Egypt, Sudan, Gabon, Mauritius and Tunisia, according to the Mobile Broadband Pricing report released by the Alliance for Affordable Internet.