by Chris Nomjov
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday said the number of Internet users on Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) networks had increased to 76,322,802 in December 2014.
The regulatory body disclosed this in its Monthly Internet Subscriber Data, made available to NAN in Lagos. The data revealed that there was an increase of 2,248,819 Internet users on the networks in December, adding to the 74,073,983 users recorded in November 2014.
It showed that from the 76,322,802 users recorded in December, MTN Nigeria led the table, with 38,616,737 customers browsing the Internet on its network. It stated that MTN Nigeria had an increase of 698,289 Internet subscribers in December, after it recorded 37,918,448 users in November 2014.
According to the data, Globacom is second on the Internet usage table, recording 17,139,320 subscribers surfing the net through its network in December. It said Globacom gained a total of 614,580 additional Internet users on its network, up from 16,524,740 users in November.
Airtel Nigeria, it said, was third on the roll with 14,371,987 Internet users in December, as against 13,820,307 customers recorded in November.
The data showed that Internet users on Airtel Nigeria network increased by 551,680 in December. It disclosed that Etisalat was last on the table with 6,194,758 of its customers browsing the Internet in December, against the 5,810,488 users in November.
The data showed that those browsing the net on Etisalat network increased by 384,270 in December. The NCC data also revealed that the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators (Multi-Links and Visafone) had a joint total of 154,324 Internet users on their networks in December.
It showed that the only surviving two CDMA networks in the country listed a loss of 1,704 Internet subscribers in the month under review from 156,028 users they recorded in November. Visafone on its part recorded a decrease of 1,344 customers surfing the Internet in December, reducing to 153,370 compared to the 154,744 users in the month of November.
It said that Multi-Links had 954 Internet users in December, hence losing 330 customers from the November record of 1,284. The data showed that in spite of the decrease on the part of the CDMA networks, Nigerians were gradually embracing data as the next revolution in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
