MTN keeps climbing but Nigeria remains difficult

Mobile phone company MTN now has almost 159-million subscribers throughout Africa with more than 20-million in South Africa, according to a report published by Business Live that says the South African subscriber base grew by 5,9% during the September quarter.

MTN says that its subscriber base in the south and east African region represented 23% of the company's total subscriber base while west and central Africa contributed 44% and the Middle East and north Africa contributed 33%.

MTN Nigeria recorded a 1,4% increase in its subscriber base to 41,1-million users after new pricing plans allowed the net connection performance to improve with 459 000 new connections made.

However, the Nigerian Communications Regulator is insisting that MTN - and two other network operators - comply with the quality of service requirements or face penalties.

MTN Nigeria has been given 30 days to meet the targets set down by the regulator otherwise it will be forced to stop selling new SIM cards and incur financial penalities.

Read the full article on www.businesslive.co.za.
View MTN's subscriber figures.