The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Internet users

  • Internet users hit 91m, says NCC

    Internet users in Nigeria are 91 million, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

    The NCC said internet users increased from 90,124,428 in April to 91,565,010 in May, an increase of 1,440,582.

    The telecommunications industry regulator made the disclosure in its Monthly Internet Subscribers Data obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos.

    The data indicates that internet users on both Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks increased from 90,154,737 in April to 91,565,319 in May.

    It said that out of the 91,595,319 internet users in May, 91,565,010 were on GSM networks, while 30,309 users were on CDMA networks.

    Also, the GSM service providers gained 1,440,582 internet customers after recording 91,565,010 users in May, as against 90,124,428 it recorded in April.

    The CDMA operators had retained 30,309 internet subscribers in May as recorded in April.

    The data also shows that MTN had 31,406,441 subscribers browsing the internet on its network in the month under review and also recorded an increase of 600,464 internet subscribers in May after recording 30,805,977 in April.

    According to the NCC, Globacom has 27,402,484 customers surfing the net on its network in May, revealing an increase of 211,713 users from the 27,190,771 that surfed the internet on the network in April.

    Airtel had 19,912,661 internet users in May, showing an increase of 504,811 customers from 19,407,850 recorded in April.

    The data also showed Etisalat had 12,843,424 customers who browsed the internet in May, an increase of 123,594 users from the 12,719,830 users recorded in April.

    CDMA operators, Multi-Links and Visafone had a total of 30,309 internet users on their networks in May, maintaining the same record of April.

    Visafone has 30,305 customers surfing the internet in May while Multi-Links has only four internet users.

    The increase in the use of the internet in May is in anticipation of the country’s broadband target of 30 per cent penetration by 2018

  • Internet users in Nigeria now 91m – NCC

    Internet users in Nigeria now 91m – NCC

    Nigeria now has 91 million internet users, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said.

    The NCC said internet users increased from 90,124,428 in April to 91,565,010 in May, an increase of 1,440,582.

    The telecommunications industry regulator made the disclosure in its Monthly Internet Subscribers Data obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos.

    The data showed that internet users on both Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks increased from 90,154,737 in April to 91,565,319 in May.

    It said out of the 91,595,319 internet users in May, 91,565,010 were on GSM networks, while 30,309 users were on CDMA networks.

    Also, the GSM service providers gained 1,440,582 internet customers after recording 91,565,010 users in May, as against 90,124,428 it recorded in April.

    The CDMA operators retained 30,309 internet subscribers in May as recorded in April.

     

     

  • Internet users will decline to 94.4m in November – NCC

    Internet users will decline to 94.4m in November – NCC

    The number of internet users in Nigeria’s telecommunications networks has further reduced to 92,446,687 in November, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said.

    The telecommunications industry umpire made the disclosure in its Monthly Internet Subscribers Data for November, obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

    The data indicated that internet users on both Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks reduced by 759,683 in November.

    It showed that of the 92.4 million internet users in November, 92,416,378 were on GSM networks, while 30,309 users were on CDMA networks.

    Also, the GSM service providers lost 759,683 internet customers after recording 92,416,378 users in November, as against 93,176,061 it recorded in October.

    The CDMA operators had retained 30,309 internet subscribers in November as recorded in October 2016.

    The data revealed that MTN had 32,017,779 subscribers browsing the internet on its network in the month under review.

    It said that MTN recorded a decrease of 447,000 internet subscribers in November, after recording 32,464,779 in October.

    According to the data, Globacom has 27,122,892 customers surfing the net on its network in November, revealing a decrease of 62,660 users, from the 27,185,552 that surfed the internet on the network in October.

    Airtel had 19,143,700 internet users in November, adding 311,462 customers to its October record of 18,832,238.

    The data also showed that Etisalat had 14,132,007 customers who browsed the internet in November, revealing a decrease of 561,485 users against the 14,693,492 users recorded in October.

    The NCC data revealed that the CDMA operators, Multi-Links and Visafone, had a joint total of 30,309 internet users on their networks in November, maintaining the same record of October.

    According to the data, Visafone has 30,305 customers surfing the internet in November, while Multi-Links has just four internet users.

    The decrease in the use of the internet in November showed that service providers had a great job of ensuring that more Nigerians embrace data, as the next revolution.

  • Internet users down to 92m, says NCC

    Internet users down to 92m, says NCC

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said  internet users on telco’s networks had reduced further to 92,409,962, as at March this year.

    According to its monthly Internet Subscriber Data, internet users on both the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks slumped by 1,340,668.

    It added that 93,750,630 subscribers surfed the internet in February while only 92,409,962 did in March.

    Out of the 92,409,962 internet users in March, 92,285,052 were on GSM networks, while 124,910 users were on CDMA.

    Of the 92,285,052 internet users on the GSM networks during the month under review, the data showed that MTN had 33,356,595 customers on its network.

    It stated that MTN suffered a decrease of 2,247,775 internet subscribers in March, after it recorded 35,604,370 users in the month of February.

    According to the data, Globacom had 26,530,420 customers in March, showing a reduction of 845,583 from its February’s record of 25,684,837.

    It said, however, that the Airtel recorded a rise of users with 17,155,181 internet users in the month of March, as against 17,079,646 customers in February.

    “The records, therefore, showed that the Airtel users increased by 75,535 in the month of March,’’ the data added.

    The data also showed that Etisalat had 15,242,856 internet users in March, as against the 15,231,652 in February, recording an increase of 11,204 ursers in the month under review.

    It also showed that the CDMA operators (Multi-Links and Visafone), had a joint total of 124,910 internet users on their networks in March.

    It showed that the only surviving two CDMA networks in the country experienced a decrease of 25,215 internet subscribers in the month under review, from the 150,125 users they recorded in January.

    “Visafone had 124,768 customers surfing the internet in March, showing a reduction of 25,185 users from the February record of 149,953.

    “Multi-Links had 142 internet users in the month of March, showing a reduction of 30 customers from the February record of 172 users,” the data showed.

    The document stressed the need for more Nigerians to embrace the internet, to speed up the country’s progress towards achieving 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018.

  • Cisco sees internet users in Nigeria, others rise to 425million

    Dd for mobile access and video services, internet users in Nigeria, other parts of Africa and the Middle East will rise steeply to 425million, a United States tech giants, Cisco has predicted.

    According to the 10th annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast for this year, by 2019, there will be nearly 3.9 billion global internet users (more than 51 per cent of the world’s population), up from 2.8 billion last year.

    In Middle East and Africa, internet protocol (IP) traffic will grow six-fold by 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 44 per cent. Factors expected to drive traffic growth include global increases in internet users, personal devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, faster broadband speeds, and the adoption of advanced video services.

    Internet traffic will grow 6.8-fold from last year to 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 47 per cent and there will be 2.1 billion networked devices in 2019, up from 1.4 billion last year.

    Cisco said 78 per cent of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2019 with M2M modules accounting for 17 per cent (358.9 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to eight per cent (112.1 million) last year; tablets will account for four per cent (93.1 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to two per cent (24.7 million) last year while smartphones will account for 31 per cent (652.0 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to 14 per cent (196.6 million) last year and non-smartphones will account for 38.3 per cent (818.9 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to 68 per cent (943.6 million) last year.

    Connected TVs will account for three per cent (69.4 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to two per cent (23.8 million) in 2014. In Middle East and Africa, TVs accounted for two per cent of total internet traffic in 2014, and will be two per cent of total Internet traffic in 2019, Cisco averred.

    General Manager, Cisco Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mr. Dare Ogunlade, said the relevance of VNI is underscored by the rise in internet of everything.

    He said: “As consumers, businesses and societies in Nigeria head towards the digital era with the Internet of Everything gaining momentum, VNI is even more relevant now in its 10th year than it was in its first. For our customers and the industry ecosystem as a whole, we look forward to continuing to report on these trends, the challenges they bring, and the immense opportunities ahead.

    “We are entering into a very dynamic technological era and the rapid increase in connected devices will benefit a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, transportation, oil and gas, utilities, government, healthcare, sports and entertainment, education, in terms of increased efficiency, reduced costs, and, most important, improvement of the lives of citizens.”

    Key global IP traffic and service predictions by Cisco also showed that several elements will shape IP traffic in the coming years, adding that on more internet users, last year, there were 2.8 billion internet users, or 39 per cent of the world’s population of 7.2 billion, adding that by 2019, there will be about 3.9 billion internet users, or 51 per cent of the world’s projected population of 7.6 billion quoting Population Division of the Dept. of Economic & Social Affairs of the United Nations.

    On proliferation of devices and connections, the firm said 24 billion networked devices/connections is expected online by 2019, compared with 14 billion last year. It urged service provider networks to adapt to an influx of sophisticated devices. These devices include tablets, smartphones, and Internet-enabled ultra-high definition (UHD) TVs, as well as M2M connections and wearables (including new smart watches, health monitors, and others.)

    “Globally, the average fixed broadband speed will increase two-fold from 20.3 Mbps in 2014 to 42.5 Mbps in 2019. Year-over-year, the average global fixed broadband speed grew 26 per cent from 16 Mbps in 2013 to 20.3 Mbps in 2014. From a regional perspective, Western Europe and Asia Pacific continue to lead the world in fixed broadband network speeds.

    New and Advanced Video Services – IP video will account for 80 per cent of all IP traffic by 2019, up from 67 per cent in 2014. The evolution of advanced video services (fr example UHD and spherical/360 video) and increasingly video centric M2M applications are anticipated to create new bandwidth and scalability requirements for service providers. Residential, business and mobile consumers continue to have strong demand for advanced video services across all network and device types, making quality, convenience, content/experience and price key success factors.

    “Mobility Momentum – By 2019, more than 14 percent of monthly IP traffic will derive from cellular connections, and 53 percent of monthly IP traffic will come from Wi-Fi connections globally, making differentiated and monetizable mobile strategies more important for all service providers,” it added.

    On the Internet of Everything (IoE) and M2M Growth, Cisco said IoE trend is showing tangible growth as M2M connections and will more than triple over the next five years (growing to 10.5 billion by 2019). There will be significant IoE adoption across many business verticals (agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and transportation) as well as connected home deployments (that is video security, smart meters, lighting/temperature control, etc.). Connected Health consumer segment will have the fastest M2M connections growth at 8.6-fold (54 per cent compound annual growth rate or CAGR) from 2014 to 2019

    Cisco predicts a marked increase in network traffic associated with game downloads driven by availability of storage capacity on gaming consoles, an increase in upstream cloud traffic, and increasing fiber connections.

    “Online music will be the fastest-growing residential Internet service with a CAGR of 7.7 percent from 2014-2019, growing from 1.2 billion users to 1.7 billion users by 2019. Mobile location-based service (LBS) will be the fastest growing consumer mobile service with a CAGR of 27.5 percent from 2014-19, growing from 597 million users in 2014 to over two billion users by 2019. Desktop and personal videoconferencing will be the fastest growing business Internet service with a CAGR of 23.5 per cent from 2014-2019, growing from 76 million users in 2014 to 220 million users by 2019,” Cisco said.

     

  • Glo had 68 per cent of new internet users in April, says NCC

    Glo had 68 per cent of new internet users in April, says NCC

    Telecommunication giant Globacom added over a million new internet users on its network in April and thus retained its position as the second largest data service provider in the country.

    According to information available on the website of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Globacom had 19,690,526 subscribers surfing the net with its network in April, up from 18,617,607 users in March.

    Globacom gained 1,072,919 additional internet users during the review period. This increase translates to 67.58 per cent of total number of new internet subscriber figure of 1,587,514 for the telecom networks for the month of April.

    NCC data showed that MTN lost 384,487 internet subscribers in April, after it recorded 39,520,285 users, down from 39,904,772 in March 2015. Airtel Nigeria, it said, had 17.2 million internet users in April, as against 16,603,147 customers recorded in March. The data showed that internet users on the Airtel Nigeria network increased by 669,518 in April.

    For Etisalat, 10.4 million of its customers browsed the internet in April, against the 10,189,568 users in March, showing an increase of 231,661 in the new month.

    NCC said the number of subscribers browsing the internet on Nigeria’s telecoms networks increased to 87,055,484 in April, up from 85,467,970 users in March.

    The data showed that the increase of 1,587,514 internet users during the period was on both the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks in April.

    The recent internet subscriber acquisition by Globacom could be linked to the recent massive upgrade and modernisation of the operator’s network across the country. The network enhancements have increased the capacity of the network and significantly boosted service quality levels.

    Globacom also recently introduced a number of innovative initiatives which give more value for money for the various services the operator provides. One of such was the recently concluded Overload promo which gave subscribers 400 percent bonus for data bundle subscription on renewals of N2000 and above.

     

  • Number of Internet users hits 48m, says minister

    Minister of Information Labaran Maku yesterday said t the number of Internet users in Nigeria has risen from 200,000 in 2000 to more than 48 million by the end of last year.

    Maku made this known while addressing State House Correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting, presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, at the State House, Abuja.

    The minister added that more than one million hits were recorded monthly by the Ministry of Information on social media reporting in the country.

    He underscored the need to develop the social media as an outreach, stressing that “the administration of President Jonathan will always encourage the media to thrive’’.

    The minister said regulation was one of the major challenges of the ministry.

    According to him, while government will not seek to control the media, there is the need for some level of regulation for the industry to conform to international standard.

    He said that regulations and enforcement of ethics were necessary for professional growth, quality, balance and the development of the media on sustainable basis.

    Reviewing last year activities of the ministry, Maku said that it embarked on public sensitisation to the need for deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector.