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MTN to continue its domination in Nigerian mobile market (Nigeria)

  • September 1st, 2008
  • 6:26 am

With 44 million subscribers, in 2008 Nigeria beats South Africa to become largests mobile market.  New customers are signing up at a rate of almost one per second, and yet market penetration stands at only just over 30%. To expand networks, operators are investing billions of dollars. 3G services have been instigated, and rising competition comes from a number of additional players who have entered the lucrative mobile market under a new unified licensing regime. Falling ARPU levels compelling the operators to introduce new services and transform themselves into converged broadband service providers.

Operators covered for Nigeria include

  • MTN
  • MTC
  • Nitel
  • Globacom

Notable highlights of  Mobile Forecast include:

  • The subscriber base in Nigeria will be increasing rapidly from 2008 to 2010. The number of total subscribers will rise from our current projected 52.7 million to a forecasted 70.8 million in 2010.
  • The level of wireless penetration in the country will also increase from 35.9% in 2008 to 45.5% in 2010.
  • The largest operator in Nigeria will continue to be MTN whose market share in 2010 will be 43.6%. The competitive environment in the Nigerian wireless market to be stable over the next few years with second player (MTC) and third player (Globacom) serving approximately 33.1% and 20.3% of total subscribers respectively.
  • MTN will receive ARPU of US$ 14.57 and will enjoy 52.9% EBITDA margin in 2010 whereas MTC will have ARPU of US$ 8.07 and 39.8% EBITDA margin.

NITEL draws up plans to offload M-Tel

  • May 30th, 2007
  • 9:04 am

Transnational Corporation (Transcorp), majority owner of beleagured incumbent Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), has mapped out strategies to ‘unbundle’ the company to other investors. Under the arrangements, which were mooted at a board meeting held in Abuja last week, NITEL’s exchanges will be handed to smaller companies to manage, while the network will be shared with vendors. One source told the News Agency of Nigeria that the company had already started discussions with private telephone operators. NITEL has been having problems managing its ailing PSTN and has not been able to generate enough money to ensure its revival. The source said the company had decided to go into partnership with international telecoms vendors for the maintenance of the network. It is not known whether the SAT-3 submarine cable link will be one of the assets leased out to other operators.

   

M-Tel market share in decline

  • February 9th, 2007
  • 3:25 pm

Telegeography writes…M-Tel, the mobile subsidiary of Nigeria’s recently privatised incumbent telco NITEL, is reported by AllAfrica.com to have haemorrhaged around a million customers during 2006, from 1.2 million active subscribers at the end of 2005 to only 200,000 at the end of 2006. A severe shortage of money, leading to non-payment of its staff and the lack of maintenance on its network, is thought to be responsible for the fall in patronage. NITEL was privatised at the fourth attempt in November 2006 when 75% of the ailing telco was purchased by the Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) for USD750 million, amid promises of big investment, which have apparently yet to materialise.