Nigerian Regulators Unaware of Merger Plans

Last week Nigeria’s Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, made an official presentation to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the government’s plans for merging the country’s telecoms and broadcasting regulators, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

However, local newspaper This Day quotes NBC director general, Yomi Bolarinwa, as saying that the commission is unaware of such a move by the government. ‘NBC is a government agency, we have not been informed by government of any merger, when government writes [to] us, then we will know. Now, we don’t have knowledge of such merger,’ the official said in a phone interview.

MNP To Begin In Nigeria During H2

Nigeria's tele­coms regulator, Nigerian Com- munications Com- mission (NCC) has confirmed that the delayed Mobile Number Portability will be introduced in the second-half of this year, confirming earlier statements about the issue.

Mr. Stephen Bello, the acting vice-chairman of the Commission, told IT News Africa that  it had become necessary to introduce MNP because of the high telecom subscriber base in the country.

Mr. Earnest Ndukwe, former CEO of NCC, had set May 2009 as the date for the announcement of a timetable for MNP takeoff. On the mode of implementation, he said that the NCC would engage the services of an independent company to oversee the process. He also revealed that the local operators were on board and ready.

Earlier this year, the NCC retained the services of KPMG Consultancy Services as consultants for the development of Regulatory and Technical Framework for implementation of number portability in Nigeria.

According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the country ended last year with 73 million mobile subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 50%. The market shares of the operators are: MTN Nigeria (42.2%), Glo Mobile (22.5%), Zain (20.2%), Etisalat Nigeria (4.7%), Visafone (3.7%), Multi-Links Telecommunications (2.7%), Starcomms (2.3%) and Reliance Telecommunications (1.7%)

Court Reinstates 3G Licencing In Nigeria

A Federal High Court in Abuja has voided the cancellation of the licensing of WiMAX spectrum in the 2.3GHz frequency band by Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Akunyili, in May 2009. The cancellation was reversed on the grounds that Akunyili's decision was in excess of her powers, making such action null and void. The court also ordered the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to immediately release a licence to Mobitel, which emerged as one of the three winners for the four slots in the 2.3GHz band, after each paid the required NGN1.368 billion (USD9.33 million).

Akunyili issued a directive for the cancellation of the licensing round in May 2009, after the process led to a number of complaints from operators faulting the NCC on how it was conducted, especially the one-week timeframe given to pay the necessary fees. The other two winners of the licensing round were Spectranet and fixed-wireless operator Multilinks, although only Mobitel filed a complaint with the Federal High Court in August 2009, stating that as it fulfilled all the conditions for the acquisition of a licence, it should have received the concession.

NCC Introduces New Interconnection Rates

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has introduced a new set of interconnection rates for voice and SMS termination with the hope that retail tariffs will be cut by as much as NGN4 (USD4.98) per minute, local newspaper This Day reports.

From 31 December 2009 interconnection rates for mobile voice termination provided by new entrants (defined by the commission as companies which have been operating for less than four years) irrespective of originating network, will be set at NGN10.12. The rates will fall to NGN9.48 on 31 December 2010, NGN8.84 on 31 December 2011 and NGN8.20 on 31 December 2012 (from which date all termination rates will be symmetric).

The NCC hopes the revised interconnection rates will encourage new entrants in the sector to offer services at more affordable rates to subscribers. Operators not defined as new entrants must set a mobile voice termination rate of NGN8.20 from 31 December 2009. Fixed voice termination rates have been set at NGN10.12 from 31 December 2009, NGN9.48 from 31 December 2010, NGN8.84 from 31 December 2011 and NGN8.20 from 31 December 2012.

The SMS termination rate of new entrants will start at NGN1.94 from 31 December 2009 and fall gradually to NGN1.02 from 31 December 2012. Other mobile operators will charge NGN1.02 from the start of 2010.

Nigerian Mobile Market in Full Throttle

The Nigerian mobile market’s bullish growth showed no signs of abating in Q4 08. Quarterly net additions of 7.15m took the total number of customers over 60m, with a year-end figure of 62.99m, while the annual gain stood at 22.59m. By comparison, Q4 07 saw an increase of 3.39m and the 2007 boost was 11.92m. Meanwhile, the latest figures from Nigerian regulator the NCC show that at the end of January the total had risen to 64.16m.

There are now four mobile CDMA networks operating in Nigeria, and they contributed significantly to the quarterly gain. On aggregate, they added 1.93m customers in Q4, only just behind the record gain of 2.01m recorded in the previous quarter. This took the total mobile CDMA customer base over 6m with an end-2008 total of 6.05m, although the NCC’s figures show that there was a net loss in January which took the base back down to 5.87m. In terms of individual operators’ performances in Q4 08, Visafone overtook Multi-Links during the quarter with an excellent figure of 0.98m net additions. It finished on 2.21m compared to 1.99m for Multi-Links, which added 0.51m in the quarter. Meanwhile, Starcomms added 0.36m to break the 1m barrier, finishing on 1.16m, and Reliance reached 0.70m in its second quarter of operation.

Of course, the CDMA market remains a relatively minor part of the total, with less than 10% of Nigerian mobile customers at the end of 2008. The market leader is MTN, which recorded a gain of 2.91m – a Nigerian record. It finished on 23.08m, almost 6m ahead of nearest rival Celtel which ended the year with 17.20m customers. Having seized second place from Glo Mobile in Q3 08, Celtel consolidated its lead in Q4, adding 1.29m customers compared to 0.63m for Glo, which finished the year on just over 16m. The two remaining networks in Nigeria are government-owned Nitel, which had 0.26m customers, and the new Etisalat/Mubadala-owned entrant, which managed to gain almost 0.4m customers in its first quarter of service.

On a proportionate basis, the total market grew by 55.9% in 2008, up from 41.9% in 2007. Amongst the top three operators, Celtel led the way with 55.0% growth, ahead of MTN (39.8%) and Glo (30.9%).

Nigeria Mobile Users Up by 55.9%, Hit 63m mark

Nigeria's mobile subscriber base reached 62.99 million at the end of 2008, up 55.9 percent annually. The country's regulator, the NCC said on a quarterly basis, net additions stood at 7.15 million, only just short of the national record of 7.38 million, set in Q2 2008.

According to the regulator, market leader MTN had 23.08 million customers at the end of the year, after having seen a quarterly increase of 2.91 million. In second place, Zain had just under 17.2 million customers. It overtook Glo Mobile in the third quarter last year, due to the latter's loss of customers. In the fourth quarter, Zain posted a net gain of 1.29 million customers, more than double Glo's additions of 0.63 million. At the end of the year, Glo had just over 16 million customers.

With 2.21 million customers at the end of the year, Visafone was the largest CDMA operator in the country and the fourth largest network operator overall. It added 0.98 million customers in the quarter, only its fourth of commercial mobile service.

Meanwhile, Multi-Links added 0.51 million to finish at 1.99 million customers, Starcomms gained 0.36 million to 1.16 million and Reliance added 0.07 million to finish on 0.70 million in its second quarter of operation. The CDMA sector totals 6.05 million customers. The country also counted another 1.31 million fixed wireless lines.