The rate and number of mobile Internet users in Nigeria continues to rise and has hit an all-time high in Nigeria. Reports have it that users reached a three-month high of 105.98 million in the month of September 2018 after latest Internet subscribers’ data obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission showed Internet users on GSM increased to this number in September as against 104.63 million recorded in August.

The report indicated that mobile network providers gained 1,351,720 new Internet users in September. This is an improvement over August’s records in which the providers gained 956,565 new Internet users on mobile devices. A breakdown of the statistics revealed that Glo gained the least with 14,840 new Internet users, increasing its subscription in September to 27.43 million from 27.42 million in August.

A breakdown showed that 9mobile lost 90,555 Internet users in September, reducing Internet subscription to 10.15 million as against June when it recorded 10.24 million. Further analyses indicated that Airtel gained 417,171 new Internet users, amounting to 27.93 million users as against 27.51 million users in August. The Internet data showed that MTN was the highest gainer having added 1.01 million new users in September with 40.47 million as against 39.46 million in the previous month.

On the CDMA network, the number of Internet users rose to 69,398 in September, as against 66,144 users in August. The NCC data showed that Internet users on the Visafone network hit 69,394 while Multilinks maintained the four subscribers that had been on its network for the past 29 months.

The statistics indicated that there was a decline in the number of data subscribers on fixed lines by 2,428 from 12,602 in August to 10,174 in September. MTN fixed lines lost 2,398 subscribers; 21st Century gained two subscribers, while IPNX lost 32 subscribers in September, the NCC data indicated. The report stated that in the VoIP category, 1,723 new users were added, increasing data users from 359,501 in August to 361,224 in September.

A further analysis of the statistics also showed that Smile network contributed the most to the new subscribers as it gained 5,251 new Internet users while Ntel lost 3,528 Internet users during the period under review. The monthly statistics showed that the country gained a total of 1,164,754 users of mobile telephony services in September. As such, GSM users hit 161.7 million subscribers in September from 160.5 million subscribers in August.