Mobile Network Operators Disconnect 4.7M Lines

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country disconnected a total of 4.7 million lines in the last five months, New Telegraph has learnt.

This brought the total number of connected lines in the country down to 295.3 million as of May from 300 million in December 2020, according to the data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The disconnection, industry sources said, was a result of improper registration or disuse by the owners of the lines for a long time.

Before the ongoing NINSIM linkage exercise, the telecom operators had been directed to disconnect any line found to have been improperly registered from their networks.

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NCC’s guidelines also permit the telecommunications companies to disconnect and reassign SIM cards once they are inactive for a maximum of 180 days.

Checks revealed that more mobile lines have become inactive in the last five months. This pushed the total number of disused lines across the networks of MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile to 108.6 million as of May end.

Before the 180 days for disconnection, a mobile line is categorized as inactive if it is not used by the subscriber to make or receive calls and/or access data services for 90 days, at the minimum.

Such lines are separated from active lines as they generate no revenue for telecom operators within the stated period.

While the telecom operators have always had inactive lines alongside the increase in active users and new activations, the ban on new SIM registration and the inability of many subscribers to retrieve their lines between December 9, 2020, and April 19, 2021, worsened the situation.

As of November 2020, the number of inactive lines across the networks stood at 90 million. The figure increased to 95 million in December and then to 99 million by January this year.

By February 2021, the figure had climbed to 102.7 million, while it hit 105 million in March. By April, the number of inactive lines rose to 107.3 million before hitting 108.7 million in May.

Meanwhile, active mobile lines across the networks continue to decline. In May, mobile subscriptions plunged further to 186.6 million from 188.4 million recorded in April. With this, the operators have lost a total 20.8 million subscriptions between December 2020 and May 2021. As of November 2020, active subscriptions stood at 207.5 million. The decline began in December last year as the government banned registration of new SIMs.

With full resumption of SIM sales in May, it was expected that the operator would begin to regain their lost subscriptions. This was, however, not so as subscriptions as it continued to decline in the month. According to industry analysts, the condition that the NIN must be submitted before buying a new SIM would be limiting the rate of SIM acquisition as many Nigerians are yet to register for the NIN.

According to the NCC’s industry data for May, all the operators, except one, recorded a decline in their subscriptions database.

Mobile network operators in the country gained more revenue from their issued lines in June as the number of inactive users reduced from 94.6 million in May to 89 million. This means that about five million lines that had been inactive were used in the month.