By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The number of active mobile phone lines in Nigeria increased to 144 million in December 2017 from about 142 million that was recorded in November of the same year, indicating an increase of 2,731,273 lines. The monthly Subscriber Technology Data published on the website of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown to underscore a somewhat significant growth in Africa’s largest market of nearly 145 million active mobile users.
The Commission said the active lines moved to 144,631,678 in December compared to 141,900,405 in November 2017 while the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) stood at same number of 217,566 users in both months.
VoIP on the rise
According to the report, the number of fixed wired/wireless in December was 139,344 as against 137,190 in November, showing an increase of 2,154 lines while the number of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) indicated an increase of 5,977 as 70,926 was recorded in December as against November which had 61,488.
Teledensity for December 2017 was 103.61 against 101.66 in November, recording an increase of 195.Teledensity is the number of telephone connections for every 100 individuals living within an area. It varies widely across the nation.
Fall in connected lines
NCC, however, said the number of connected mobile lines in December decreased to 236,927,497 compared to 237,010.282 in November 2017, a decrease of 82, 785.
It said the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) for connected lines for December was 3,586.095 same as November 2017 while the number of fixed wired/wireless for connected lines in December was 346,107 compared to 342,792 in November, showing an increase of 3,315.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for connected lines in December was 472, 844, while in November it was 239, 091, showing an increase of 233,753.
