MTN Leads as Total Fibre Optics Deployment across Networks Hit 77,235.5km

Emma Okonji

The industry performance report for the year ended December 2022, released this week by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), showed that a substantial telecoms infrastructure deployment was recorded in 2022, with MTN Nigeria leading in land and submarine cable infrastructure, including microwave radio infrastructure deployment.

According to the report, a total of 77,235.5km of fibre (On-land and Submarine) was deployed as at December 2022. Out of the figure, 49,367.2km was deployed on land as terrestrial fibre optics cable, while 27,868.3km was deployed as submarine cable across all five networks comprising of MTN, Globacom, 9mobile, Airtel and ntel, with MTN having the largest on-land and submarine deployment of 14,612km and 17,984lm respectively as at December 2022.

As at December 2022, the total submarine fiber deployment in kilometers was 27,868.3km as against 27,818.3km in year 2021, which is an increase of 0.17 per cent within the year under consideration.

According to the report, the fiber deployment by four operators, were MTN -17,984km; GLO – 9,800km; AIRTEL -14.3km and NTEL – 70km.

Total on land fiber deployment was 49,367.20km as against 47,128.7km in year 2021. The on-land fiber deployment among five operators include: MTN – 14,612km; GLO – 13,813km; AIRTEL – 16,112.2km; EMTS trading as 9mobile – 4,650km and NTEL – 180km.

As at December 2022, the mobile operators had deployed a total of 288,947.48km of Microwave Radio links as against the 290,625.69km of Microwave Radio links reported for 2021, which is a decrease of 0.57 per cent.

For the Microwave Radio deployment, MTN covered 80,074.59km in 2022 as against 85,551 that it covered in 2021. Globacom covered 71,061.46km in 2022 as against 71,540km that it covered in 2021. Airtel covered 81,352.00km in 2022 as against 77,095km that it covered in 2021. EMTS, trading as 9mobile, covered 48,957.69km in 2022 as against 48,958km that it covered in 2021. Smile covered 2,948.00km of Microwave Radio link in 2022 as against 2,948kn that it covered in 2021, while ntel covered 4,553.74km Microwave Radio link in 2022 as against 4,534km that it covered in 2021. 

 The report also explained that MTN, Airtel, Globacom and EMTS, had a total number of 41,395 Trunks (E1 lines) in use as at December 2022, indicating a decline from 59,048 Trunks (E1) reported as at December 2021. Most operators have implemented and evolved Internet Protocol (IP) capacities to carry volumes of data traffic hence the perceived reduction in E1, which was experienced in the previous year. Thus, the reduction was due to changes in technology.

MTN, Globacom, Airtel, Smile Netwotk and ntel had a total number of 62 Gateways in use as at December 2022.

A summary shows, MTN had 1; GLO 3; Airtel 16, EMTS 39, Smile 2 and ntel1.

According to the report, as at December, 2022, total active voice subscriptions for the entire market segments was 222,571,568 as against 195,463,898 recorded as at December, 2021. This, according to the NCC report, indicates an increase of 13.86 per cent in 2022. Teledensity was 116.60 per cent in 2022 as against 102.40 per cent recorded in 2021, which indicates an increase of 13.86 per cent in teledensity as at December 2022.

Industry stakeholders attributed the increase in operators’ subscriber base majorly to the effect of the directive from NCC in April 2021 to all GSM operators lifting the ban on the sale and registration of new SIMs, SIM swaps and all porting activities following the conclusion of the commissions nationwide audit of subscriber registration database. The objective of the audit exercise was to verify and ensure compliance by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) with the set quality standards and requirements of SIM card registration as issued by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the NCC.