• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Data wars: Airtel takes on MTN, others on internet revenue

FG to sign executive order declaring telecoms critical national infrastructure

Airtel Nigeria is taking on other mobile network providers in the country in its push to gain dominance in internet subscription.

The telco continued to maintain its position as the internet provider with the second-largest subscribers in August 2019, the latest data by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) show. The stiff competition Airtel Nigeria is bringing to the data market is already taking a toll.

While Airtel Nigeria reported 32.75 million data subscribers, a 14.97 percent increase from the 32.40 million subscribers posted in July this year, more than half a million of MTN Nigeria’s internet subscribers ditched the network in August 2019 while the telecom’s 40 percent market share also dropped to 37.2 percent in the same period.

According to industry sources, Airtel’s high quality of data and consumer-friendly prices are the reasons Nigerians are in the rush to have a SIM card from the service provider.

Ayorinde Akinloye, research analyst at Lagos-based CSL, said this, in the long run, should be a significant win for Airtel as it has spent heavily on advertisement and offering innovative bulk products to the market.

“Coming in with lower price points seems to be the final peg in their strategy to fight for market share and future growth. From recent porting data from the NBS, they are well on course,” Akinloye told BusinessDay.

According to data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the month ended June 2019, Glo witnessed the highest number of subscribers that ported out of the network at 3,887. This was followed by 9mobile (1,200), MTN followed closely with 1,178 customers porting out of the network, while Airtel recorded the least number (73) of subscribers that exited the network in the review month.

Checks by BusinessDay revealed that Airtel has been investing a lot of resources in advertisement coupled with cheap products which seem to have attracted a lot of Nigerians whose purchasing power has been dampened by the country’s fragile economy.

Just like the MTN Startpack, Glo Talk Special, and 9mobile’s 9X, Airtel recently launched its smartCONNECT 5.0 product.

“Discover more of YOU with more data. Enjoy 6GB for just N1,500,” the telco said on its Twitter handle.

According to the service provider, the Airtel smartCONNECT 5.0 gives its customers eight times bonus whenever they recharge and also gives double bonus on data subscription.

MTN Startpack, on the other hand, is a special tariff plan that rewards new MTN customers with 700 percent bonus on any recharge of their choice. Such customers can enjoy the bonus for three months.

“Every recharge of N200 and above gives you 10MB valid for two days. Note that your bonus will stop at three months. Meanwhile, MTN will migrate you to MTN BetaTalk tariff plan,” a network subscriber said.

According to information compiled from Glo website, the Glo Talk Special is a package that offers its customers six times the value of the loaded amount. This package is recommended for subscribers who make a lot of calls and less data.

“This package also gives users additional data to gift to another Glo customer for free,” the information on the network provider’s website said.

For 9mobile, its 900 percent bonus is aimed at giving its customers more of their recharge value

“300 percent for voice calls and 600 percent for data,” the telco said. The bonus is for new customers who recharge N200 or more.

“MTN has the highest share of subscription. This is closely followed by GLO, AIRTEL, and EMTS, respectively,” NBS said in its report.

However, data from NCC showed that MTN lost 667,245 subscribers to drop to 51.60 million in August this year compared with 52.27 million which it got in July. It’s the second time the company is shedding subscribers this year.

In June, the telco lost 178,103 subscribers but went on to gain a paltry 14,353 in July only to lose more than half a million in August.

Despite the drop in internet subscribers, MTN remains the network with the highest subscribers with 42 percent of the total market share.

Checks by BusinessDay revealed that Airtel Nigeria started its advertorial push with its low data products to attract new customers earlier this year but Glo had been on the same road long before the former came on board. However, the latter has not achieved much progress from both voice and data subscriptions.

“The difference is quality and product innovation,” Akinloye said.

According to industry sources, MTN Nigeria may not be giving up its market lead any time soon, as its margin is still wide for the in-form Airtel to easily surpass it.

“There is, however, no doubt that MTN has serious issues to address to prevent the decline from becoming a trend,” an industry source said on the condition of anonymity.

ENDURANCE OKAFOR