11 Million Phone Lines in Nigeria (teledensity now 9.2)

"Abuja, Nigeria. May 1, 2005. The combined fixed and mobile phone in Nigeria grew to 11 million lines in January, this year, raising the country’s teledensity to 9.2, telecoms sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said." (TechTimesNews)

11 million telephone lines?  Well that's nice, but we still want the cost of making a phone call to go down! 

Here is the breakdown of this figure:
Mobile Phone Lines:  9,950,000 (mobile phone subscribers)
Private Telecom Operators: 568,925 ('fixed wireless' lines)
Fixed Telephone Lines: 525,000 (NITEL land lines)
Total Figure: 11,043,925

Please feel free to reply this post if you have new information or important comments.  You will need to register first, though.

The teledensity is very low, but a major improvement. I think it took south africa much longer to get to this level of teledensity. In 2 years, Nigeria will have more phones than south africa, but with a lower teledensity.  South africa's system is quite uneven, so its not a model to follow.  Its recommended that we have 10% teledensity, and it looks like we have passed that stage.  My hope is we can have 100% teledensity

Check this out

Nigeria's phone lines now 14 million, says NCC
By Sonny Aragba-Akpore, Asst. Communications Editor

WITHIN five years, the country has progressed from having only 475,000
telephone lines to 14 million, according to the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC).



Chief Executive, NCC, Ernest Ndukwe, disclosed in Lagos at the maiden
edition of New Age/NCC seminar on "Telecommunications in Nigeria: The
Next Frontier" that while digital mobile lines had hit 12.8 million,
fixed lines stood at 1.2 million.

According to him, "in May 2000, there were 25,000 analogue mobile
lines while fixed lines stood at 450,000."

Ndukwe cited transparent licensing and investors' confidence in the
economy among other factors responsible for this massive growth in the
communications sector.

He stated that since April 2000 when a new board was inaugurated by
the Federal Government for the NCC, "the country and the
telecommunications sector have become investors' preferred destination
in Africa."

Indeed, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says
Nigeria's telecoms sector is the fastest growing in Africa, one of the
fastest growing in the world, thus an investors' haven.

According to him, though the country's teledensity or telephone
penetration has experienced a steady 100 per cent yearly rise in the
last five years, for a population of over 120 million, the number of
lines is still a drop in the ocean, adding: "So we cannot afford to be
complacent".

"Information and Communications Technology (ICT) remains a priority of
the Federal Government and an important sector in the reform agenda of
President Olusegun Obasanjo administration," he said.

Ndukwe said that the President required "the NCC to ensure that ICT
facilities are extended to all citizen of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. Not just basic telephone but other essential services such as
Internet and broadband."

To ensure the speedy implementation of this mandate, the NCC has put
in place a five-year plan tagged: "The Era of Growth and
Consolidation. This era aims to sustain the rapid growth of
subscribers as well as improve sector efficiency," Ndukwe said.

The five-year scheme has a 10-point agenda which included "promoting
mass market whereby ICT is seen as an enabler of broad-based social
and economic development. ICT must therefore be accessible and
affordable to all citizens of the country."

He said the NCC would facilitate an enabling environment that would
ensure availability and affordability for all in the society.

The NCC will also ensure that services are extended to the rural and
under-served areas, "no matter where the citizens reside because ICT
is the engine for economic growth."

According to Ndukwe, the NCC has also put in place and will pursue a
massive implementation of the Wire Nigeria (WiN) programmes to ensure
that optic fibre infrastructure is extended to all parts of the
country.

He said the commission would do this in consultation with service
providers for whom there would be attractive incentives.

The NCC boss also listed improvement in sector efficiency, quality of
service threshold, consumer education and protection, enforcement of
licence conditions, institutional strengthening of the NCC and
advisory role to government on policy and technology and encouragement
of investors as part of the 10-point agenda that form the five-year
plan.

Besides, Ndukwe said that operators had been enjoined to take
advantage of new technologies that improve service to consumers in
terms of ease of deployment and price.

"These include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wireless Fidelity
(WiFi) and third generation (3G)," he said.

Lagos Business School (LBS) Director, Prof. Pat Utomi, who chaired the
occasion, cited the quantum leaps of countries in Asia though the
adoption of ICT, saying "telecoms can give greater value to our
democracy though town halls fitted with electronic gadgets that enable
rural folks to reach their representatives".

New Age Publisher, Mr. Sully Abu, said that the seminar was one in a
series put in place for the purpose of public enlightenment, among
others.
- Show quoted text -

If you visit www.ncc.gov.ng you wll get subscriber information for all the operators. The information is the most authentic one can get in Nigeria since they it was compiled by the regulator, NCC.