There appears to be slow activation of new telephone lines by telecoms operators since the announcement of the 50 per cent hike in tariff, analysis of the last three months’ subscription has revealed.

The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on January 20, 2025, approved a 50 per cent tariff hike for the telcos, especially the mobile network operators (MNOs).

The hike raised the floor price for calls from N6.40 to N9.60 per minute, SMS from N4 to N6, and 1GB of data from N287.50 to N431.25.

Checks by The Guardian showed that since the implementation of the hike in January, which became more pronounced in February, as MNOs began to offer the best possible rates within the space, the activation of new telephone lines has been slow.

For instance, by the end of February, data from the NCC showed that there were 170.8 million active lines, compared to 169 million in January. By March, it rose to 172.7 million; by April, 172.9 million and by May (latest figure), it was 172.6 million. The country’s tele-density in the last three months ending in May hovered around 79 per cent.

Estimation showed that while MNOs activated 239,899 new telephone lines between March and April, they lost 276,375 active subscribers by May.

Looking back, three months before the implementation of the tariff hike, in October 2024, there were 157.6 million users, in November 2024, 159.8 million subscribers and 164.9 million customers. These figures showed that in the last quarter of 2024, operators activated 7.3 million new telephone lines, but presently, the reverse is the case.

Earlier in the first quarter of 2025, at a telecoms forum, the Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company, Bismarck Rewane, had warned that the telephony tariff hike could strain consumer budgets and lead to lower usage.

Further analysis showed that Internet users’ subscriptions have remained rather stagnant, especially via the narrowband. For instance, in March, there were 141.5 million users; in April, 141.4 million, and it dropped to 141 million by May.

Interestingly, while it appears there has been slow activation, data usage rose to 1,043,431.98TB by the end of May. Earlier, data usage dropped to 893,054.80TB in February, then gradually recovered, reaching 995,876.10TB in March, dipping slightly to 983,283.43TB in April, and now peaking in May.

The Guardian learnt that the recent usage in data was largely via the broadband spectrum as activities continued to peak around Fibre to The Home (FTTH), Fibre to The Room (FTTR) among other initiatives by operators in that space, albeit, largely in the cities. For instance, from March to May, broadband users rose by 2.34 million. Specifically, it was 103.4 million in March; 104.3 million by April and 105.8 million by May.

That said, broadband penetration was 48.81 per cent in May, which is about 21.19 per cent away from the 70 per cent target as enshrined in the National Broadband Plan that must be met by December 2025.

It should also be noted that last week, telcos under the aegis of the Association of Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) announced a disruption to SIM-related services for some time, due to migration to a new verification platform of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). But NIMC has since said the platform has now been restored.

MEANWHILE, indications emerged over the weekend that telcos and towercos have been mandated by NCC to improve the quality of service by August, failure of which could earn them huge penalties.

Industry sources, who were at a meeting where this directive was given by the NCC, said the regulator has been petitioned severally by some aggrieved subscribers on the drop in quality of service.

Sources said NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Aminu Maida, gave the directive during a meeting in Abuja, attended by major tower infrastructure providers, including IHS Towers, American Tower Corporation (ATC), Pan-African Towers, and other key stakeholders like the Internet service providers.

The meeting, according to sources, focused on identifying bottlenecks in infrastructure delivery and improving the performance of shared telecom infrastructure, among other pressing industry issues, including vandalism, rising cases of fibre cuts.

Guardian