Mobile data suffer marginal setback
Mobile data subscription in the country reduced marginally in February, according to latest figures released by the industry regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA).
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From the total data subscriber base of 15,805,646 as at the end of January 2015, the figure reduced by 1,038 to end February 2015 with 15,804,608.
This represents a negative variance of 0.01 per cent.
Losers
MTN Ghana, which is also the market leader in mobile voice subscriptions, suffered a heavy loss as its data subscription decreased by 85,642 from the January figure of 7,746,125 to end February with 7,660,483.
Glo Mobile dropped by 9,114 subscriptions to further bring down its January data subscription figure of 652,671 to 643,557 at the end of February 2015.
Gainers
The data subscription for tiGO went up by 40,534 from the January 2015 figure of 2,263,015 to end February 2015 with a subscription of 2,303,539.
Vodafone Ghana also witnessed a positive change in its data subscription base.
Its January figure of 2,952,733 increased by 1,392 to close February 2015 with a 2,954,125 data subscribers.
Airtel, which has also been aggressive with its media and marketing campaign for many months, saw a rise in its data subscription figures by 50,753.
As a result, the January figure of 2,155,850 shot up to 2,206,603 as at February.
Expresso, which has consistently suffered losses in its mobile voice subscription base was ,however, able to turn things around with its data subscriptions.
Its subscriber base for data increased by 1,049 subscriptions from its January figure of 35,252 to 36,301 as of the end of February 2015.
Meanwhile, the Director of Business Solutions at Airtel Ghana, Mr Maxwell Dodd, has underscored the need for the country to adopt measures to increase Internet penetration to impact socio-economic growth, reports Maclean Kwofi.
According to him, the telecom industry will be able to support the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) only if the government and all stakeholders in the sector collaborate to ensure that mobile phone Internet penetration increases in the country.
Mr Dodd, who was speaking at the second West Africa Telecom Summit and Expo (WATSE) 2015, in Accra, noted that only 35 per cent of the over 31.03 million mobile phone subscribers used the Internet.
WATSE 2015
The Group Publisher of MobileWorld Magazine, Mr Akin Naphtal, indicated that WATSE, which was running for the second time in Ghana, had gathered stakeholders interested in publishing frontiers of the telecom market.
He said the broadband networks had profoundly changed socio-economic climate in the sub-region. However, he said the broadband divide in Africa remained wide compared to the rest of the world.
“The West African telecommunications market is rapidly growing, and faces a number of challenges and opportunities within the digital market,” he said.
According him, mobile money services in the region are also entering new frontiers and are evolving with exciting developments on the horizon.
“Similarly, digital broadcasting has become another exciting innovation in the sector at the moment,” he added.
