MTN, Airtel, record N403.2 billion from data sales in Q3 2023
Kingsley Odii
MTN and Airtel, Nigeria’s leading mobile network operators, have reported record-breaking earnings of N403.2 billion ($513 million) from data services in the third quarter of 2023. The surge in data consumption by Nigerians has been cited as the driving force behind this remarkable growth.
MTN, the largest telecom operator in the country, witnessed a substantial increase in data revenue, reaching N279.5 billion ($355 million) between July and September this year. Compared to the same period last year, this represents a notable 38.9% growth from N201.1 billion.
Similarly, Airtel Nigeria experienced an impressive surge in data subscriptions, earning N123.7 billion ($157 million) in the third quarter. This represents a remarkable 29.3% growth in data revenue for the company.
Both telecom giants attributed this unprecedented growth to the exponential rise in data consumption by their customers.
MTN’s Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, explained that this surge was supported by the revamp of MTN’s data bundle offerings and increased penetration of smartphones. The company also made substantial investments in network expansion, coverage, and capacity enhancement to provide an exceptional customer experience.
“Our 4G network now covers 80.5% of the population, up from 79.1% in December 2022. Data usage (GB per user) grew by 29.1% to 8.6GB, and the number of smartphones on our network increased by 7.6%, bringing smartphone penetration to 53.4%, up 1. Consequently, we recorded a 46.3% growth in data traffic, with the 4G network accounting for 83.7% of the total traffic,” Karl said.
Invariably, Airtel Africa’s CEO, Segun Ogunsanya, highlighted the significant increase in data consumption recorded during the review period. He credited Airtel Nigeria’s 4G network rollout, which now serves almost 100% of their sites, as a key factor contributing to the company’s impressive data revenue growth.
Seun said, “Airtel Nigeria’s data revenue grew by 29.3% in constant currency, driven by data customer base growth of 17.4% and data Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) growth of 12.3%. Data usage per customer increased by 23.8% to 5.9GB per month (from 4.8GB in the prior period.”
“Our continued 4G network rollout has resulted in nearly 100% of all our sites delivering 4G services. Furthermore, 233 5G sites are now operational. For the Q2’24 period, 4G customers accounted for 51.1% of our total data customer base and contributed to 85.3% of total data usage. Q2’24 4G data usage per customer reached 11.7 GB per month, an increase of 41.3% (from 8.3 GB per customer per month in Q2’23,” Seun further added.
The data boom is evident from the recent figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). According to the regulator, internet users in Nigeria consumed a staggering 655,879.86 terabytes of data in August alone. This represents a remarkable 6.6% increase compared to the previous month.
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