About 2.1 million new telephone lines were added to the networks in the first quarter of 2022. March statistics for mobile service subscription in the country, released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), showed that in January, there were 197.5 million mobile connections, it increased to 198.1 million in February and by March, the figure rose to 199.6 million.
The teledensity, which is telephone connections per 100 people in a specified geographic area, also rose from 103.4 per cent to 104.5 per cent at the end of the first three months of the year.
The statistics also revealed a 0.66 per cent leap in broadband penetration in the first quarter of the year. Specifically, broadband penetration rose to 42.27 per cent as against 40.91 per cent recorded in February and 41.61 per cent in January.
Broadband penetration had slowed in the last quarter of 2021, which could be attributed to several factors, including the NIN-SIM card linkage policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the rising inflation that impacted household income. In terms of usage, the statistics showed that as at March 2022, stood at 80,678,301 as against 78,082,273 recorded in the previous month.
