Posted by Xinhua on
The number of subscribers to telecommunications networks in Nigeria, the most populous African country, has hit 14.4 million by June this year, state media reported Wednesday.
The number of subscribers to telecommunications networks in Nigeria, the most populous African country, has hit 14.4 million by June this year, state media reported Wednesday.
The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) had estimated that the subscribers would be 20 million before the end of the year, four years after the liberation of the telecommunications sector.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the commission had also projected that the mobile sector would account for most of the rise, especially with a crash in the prices of SIM packs.
NAN also reported that over 7 billion dollars had been invested by various operators into the industry over the four-year period.
South Africa's MTN, state-run NITEL and its mobile subsidiary M- tel, Glo mobile and V-mobile are among the largest networks operating in Nigeria, one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world in the past two years.
In 2000, the subscriber base which was 588,374 increased to 866, 782 in 2001 while it rose from 2.2 million in 2002 to 4 million by the end of 2003, the report said.
At the end of 2004, the NCC put the total subscriber base nationwide at 10.2 million with fixed lines accounting for 1.2 million.
With the current figures, the tele-density, the number of phones per 100 persons, had increased from 0.4 percent in 2000 to more than nine percent, NAN added.
- Xinhua