[Number Porting] Is Etisalat winning or is MTN loosing?

WITH about 100 days into Mobile Number Porting (MNP) scheme in the country, it has been mixed fortunes for the telecommunications operators, going by statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Already, the April statistics showed that the country currently has 119 million active subscribers out of over 165 million connected lines. 

Interestingly, the quartet of MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, which are the GSM operators, control 117 million active subscribers. 

Indeed, the NCC number porting statistics for the month of May and June showed that MTN had 10 per cent porting gain for the month of May and 49 per cent losses. Globacom had 17 per cent porting gain and 23 per cent losses; Etisalat 44 per cent gain and 11 per cent losses; while Airtel cornered 29 per cent porters and lost 17 per cent for the month under review.

The trend continued in the month of June, with Globacom gaining 29 per cent of porters and lost 19 per cent. MTN gained nine per cent of porters and lost 47 per cent.

Etisalat, with over five years of operation in Nigeria had 50 per cent porting gains and 11 per cent losses, while NCC statistics revealed that Airtel had 12 percent porting gain and lost 23 per cent in June.