NCC: 49.6m Phone Lines Inactive in Third Quarter of 2014

A total of 49,641,091 phone lines in Nigeria were dormant at Q3 2014, latest telecoms market information released by the industry regulator has shown.

The relative dormancy of phone lines is one of the key highlights of the telecoms numbers showing the gap between the 184,148,420 connected lines and 134,507,329 active lines, the latter representing lines that actually generate revenue for Nigerian telecoms companies.

The NCC information also underscores the declining fortune of fixed telephony in the country as active fixed lines have dropped to just 190,791 by Q3 2013.

The September 2014 statistics reveals that

Telecommunication sector shows strength

As the country celebrates 54 years of independence Wednesday, and 15 years of uninterrupted democracy, the nation’s telecommunication sector has witnessed a tremendous change and achievements during the democratic period.

The sector is adjudged an indispensable catalyst for the development of all other sectors in the country.

The democratically elected government in 1999 showed keen interest in the full liberalisation of the telecommunication sector.

The licensing of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) by the Obasanjo administration saw three firms emerged, ECONET Wireless Nigeria, Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) Communications and M-Tell Nigeria.

The new GSM licences, which were awarded for a period of