The number of mobile telephony service subscribers is on the verge of reaching 30 million, data released by the sector regulator National Communication Authority has shown.
According to NCA’s data on mobile subscription trends for September 2014, the total number of active mobile subscribers rose from 29.5 million to 29.8 million, representing a 0.96 percent rise.
With the number of active mobile service subscribers growing at an average of 0.66 percent since April this year, it is expected that subscription data for the month of October 2014 will surpass the 30 million mark.
Ghana’s population according to the World Bank is estimated to be about 25.9 million and the record subscriber numbers will mean that the mobile subscription penetration will reach 115.83 percent of the population.
The September data indicate that Vodafone made the biggest gains, racking up more than 181,000 new subscribers – an about-2.7 percent jump over the previous month’s data.
Glo Mobile also recorded an over-70,000 increase in subscriber numbers, making it a third successive month of achieving growth.
Airtel also increased its subscribership by 34,000 — whereas the biggest mobile telecommunication network provider MTN saw a marginal increase of just 4,700 in the month under review.
Troubled mobile telephony service company Expresso lost more than 3,700 subscribers while Millicom Ghana, operator of Tigo, lost a little over 3,000 subscribers in the month of September.
Despite its relatively minimal performance last month, MTN controls a huge chunk of the market share with its 45 percent stake. Its closest contender, Vodafone with about 6.8 million subscribers, accounts for 23 percent of the market share.
Tigo with 14 percent of the market share is marginally ahead of Airtel, which despite its decent performance in the month under review controls 13 percent.
Credit: BFT