By: Fred Yaw Sarpong – Daily Express
Among the six mobile telecom operators in the country, Vodafone Ghana and Glo Mobile Ghana subscriber base for mobile internet drop, according to the March 2015 statistics released by the National Community Authority (NCA).
Apart from these two companies, the remaining four operators (MTN, Tigo, Airtel and Expresso) increased their subscriber base for the month of March, 2015.
Vodafone?s mobile internet decreased by 6,989 lines, representing a 0.24% loss and that resulted in a market share of 18.30%. The company?s February 2015 internet lines of 2,954,125 fell to 2,947,136 at the end of March.
Glo Mobile Ghana also recorded a decreased from February?s figure of 643,557 to end March 2015 with 629,968 internet lines. Meanwhile, it market share for the month was 3.91%.
Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN), the leading operator in the industry mobile internet lines at the end of March was 7,778,925 as compared to the February 2015 figure of 7,660,483. MTN market share at the end of the month under review was 48.30%.
Tigo also recorded an increase of 147,811 mobile internets as at the end of March with a total figure of 2,451,350 from February?s figure of 2,303,539. The figure represent 15.22% market share.
In March, this year Airtel recorded mobile internet lines of 2,259,268 from the February 2015 figure of 2,206,603. This represents 14.03% of the mobile internet market share.
Expresso, the only code division multiple access (CDMA) also experienced an increase in it mobile internet figures to end the month under review with 39,571 lines. If compared to the February 2015 figure of 36,301, Expresso gained additional mobile internet lines of 3,270. The market March market share for Expresso was 0.25%.
According to the national regulator, about 59.78% of people living (both Ghanaians and foreigners) in the country used mobile internet, based on NCA March mobile data statistics.
With a penetration rate of 59.78%, mobile internet figures in Ghana recorded an increase from 15,804,608 subscribers as at the end of February 2015 to 16,106,218 as at the end of March, 2015.
But in terms of percentage growth from March 2014 till March 2015, MTN mobile internet went up by 1.14% from 6,822,316 to 7,778,925 at the end of March, this year. Vodafone had percentage growth of 1.34% by recording 2,190,358 in March to 2,947,136 at the end of the period.
Within the period, Tigo also recorded percentage growth of 1.43% from a figure of 1,718,435 in March 2014 to 2,451,350 in March, this year. The Airtel mobile internet lines increase from 1,947,696 to 2,259,268 recorded in March 2015. Its percentage growth was 1.16%.
The Expresso had a percentage growth of 1.23% from a figure of 32,131 at the end of March 2014 to 39,571 by end of March 2015 while Glo also increased it mobile internet lines at the end of March 2015 from March 2014 figure 279,088 to 629,968 this year, representing 2.26% growth.
