Most Nigerians use more than one network Provider – Report

The latest Telecommunications Special Edition poll results released by NOIPolls Limited have revealed that a higher proportion of Nigerians use 2 phone lines either registered under one network provider or under two different ones.

This trend is said to has been consistent from 2012 to 2014.

However, a 5-point reduction in the proportion of Nigerians in this category was observed from 2012 to 2013 and 3-points increase in 2014.

An assessment of the mobile network used by Nigerians placed MTN as the highest used network in the past two years (2012-2013) and even in the present times; although subscription to this provider has consistently declined within this period.

According to the MTN group, this decline has been mainly due to ‘regulatory restrictions’ imposed by the telecoms watchdog and growing spate of unrest by Boko Haram, especially in the Northern part of Nigeria.

Other Networks used by Nigerians in the order of higher subscribers include; Airtel (45%), Etisalat (33%), Glo (28%) and Visafone (1%).

In line with this, the proportion of Airtel subscribers which seemed steady from 2012 to 2013 at (39%), picked up by 6-points in 2014 (45%), thus, making it the only network that has seen a considerable growth in the proportion of its users.

This increase may have been driven by the discovery of the cheaper tariffs offered by this network compared with other networks.

Further findings on the usage of phone lines revealed a higher proportion of subscribers (76%) use MTN as their main line; this could have been as a result of a first mover advantage earned by this operator.

In addition, 15 per cent of mobile network subscribers indicated Airtel as their main line, 5 per cent indicated Glo, while 4 per cent of subscribers use Etisalat as their main line.

An assessment of the services provided by network providers revealed that a higher proportion (64%) of mobile phone users across all networks are getting value for money from their main network provider through the ‘quality of network services’ (27%), ‘bonus offers’ (25%) and ‘cheaper tariff’ (23%) among others.

Furthermore, the report ranked MTN highest for providing best services in Nigeria in 2014, followed by Airtel and Etisalat (68%, 17% and 11% respectively) and to further improve the quality of services of Network providers, subscribers in the study suggested the ‘reduction of tariff’ (30%) as a measure for improving the quality of telecommunication services, while capitalizing on ‘wider network coverage’ (22%) and ‘improved network services’ (22%).