Mobile subscriber base soaring; Vodafone, tiGO gain 4 others lose
The country’s mobile subscriber base is soaring as the six international mobile operators continue to jostle to gain more market share.
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The companies are MTN, the market leader, which is followed by Vodafone Ghana, tiGO, Airtel, Glo Ghana and Expresso in that order.
As of the end of October this year, the mobile voice subscriber base had increased to 29,990,581 from 29,815,213 in September the same year, according to official figures from the industry regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA).
The breakdown (winners)
In the month under review, only two out of the six operators in the country Vodafone and tiGO gained some new subscribers.
The four others; MTN, Airtel, Glo and Expresso, however, lost some ground in terms of their subscriber base.
According to the NCA, Vodafone’s subscriber base increased from 6,870,223 in September to 7,128,764 at the end of October, this year.
That puts Vodafone’s market share for the month at 23.04 per cent, about 11 per cent behind the market leader, MTN.
Similarly, tiGO’s subscriber base shot up from the 4,012,580 in September to end October with 4,056,322.
tiGO, which is the third biggest mobile telecom company in the country by subscriber base, now has its market share for the month under review standing at 13.53 per cent.
The losers
MTN, which has dominated the market for more than a decade, however, saw its subscriber base decrease marginally from the 13,546,678 at the end of September to 13,478,525 by the close of October.
This brings the company’s current market share to 44.94 per cent. In the last couple of years, the company has seen its market share, which hovered above 50 per cent, plummet.
It is not clear what might have caused the decline, but experts attribute the trend to increase in the number of operators, among other factors.
Similarly, the market share of Airtel at the end of October 2014 recorded a decrease of 1.3 per cent from the previous month. Airtel now has a market share of 12.48 per cent.
In terms of subscriber base, there was a decrease from 3,790,636 in September to end October at 3,742,970.
Glo Ghana, the latest entrant among the six operators, also suffered a dip in subscriber base.
Its share decreased from the September figures of 1,474,988 to 1,465,829 by close of October.
This represents a market share of 4.89 per cent for the period under review.
Expresso continues to suffer as its fortunes in terms of subscribers continue to dip. Its subscriber base went down from 120,108 in September to 118,171 by close of October, representing a market share of 0.54 per cent.
Subscribers expect that as the numbers grow, the operators will invest in network expansion to ensure quality service delivery.