OBINNA EZUGWU
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that telecommunications service provider, Globacom, was the catalyst of the growth witnessed in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry in the third quarter of 2020.
According to the research agency, the sector grew exponentially in the quarter owing to data subscriptions which leapt by 23 percent year on year to berth at 151,063,413 million subscribers at the end of September 2020 as opposed to the corresponding period of 2019 which recorded 122,792,291.
Globacom, NBS said, achieved a 33.2 percent growth in its internet subscriber base between September 2019, and September 2020, with MTN coming second with a 24.5 percent growth during the period under review. Airtel came a distant third with a 21.4% growth year on year.
The agency’s data, however, indicated that the fourth mobile network operator, 9mobile, suffered a decline during the same period with a dismal 14 percent slide in its data subscriptions from available figures between September 2019 and September 2020.
Industry analysts contend that Glo data services gained the leap because of its backbone of high-capacity international submarine cable, Glo-1 which is solely owned by the network. Glo-1 is the harbinger of unprecedented seamless bandwidth from Europe to Nigeria and across other West African countries.
In the same vein, the telecommunications company’s giant strides in the sector are assumed to be consequent on its unrelenting network upgrade which has resulted in enhanced data service delivery to its teeming customers in voice and data.
Said company sources, Globacom has upped the ante of its massive fibre routes pan Nigeria at a frenetic pace in its bid to deepen broadband penetration as well as the reach of Glo 4G+ data services to the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
“Globacom offers subscribers attractive data packages with unmatched value. For instance, 7GB goes for only N1500, while N10,000 gives the subscriber 50GB. It also has the Mega Data plans meant for Home Broadband users such as Small Office Home Office (SOHO) and SME customers as well as high-end customers who need higher data benefits with longer validity periods. Apart from these, Globacom also has numerous social data plans which meet every customer’s social need”, the company source added
