Telecom firms lose N156.3bn monthly to dormant lines

Telecommunications companies in the country are losing about N156.3bn in potential revenue every month due to the increasing number of inactive telephone lines on their networks, investigation has revealed.

The telecoms firms and the Nigerian Communications Commission came about the figure after a check on the average spending of subscribers monthly, with the number of inactive lines multiplied by the Average Revenue per User.

An analysis of the latest industry data released by the NCC shows that there are currently over 85.4 million inactive telephone lines on the various mobile networks in the country, while the industry ARPU is put at N1,830 ($6).

This figure represents 36 per cent of the total 239,586,312 connected telephone lines, as only 154,120,484 lines are said to be active by the regulator, making about 85.4 million lines inactive as of February 2017.

In January, the inactive telephone lines in the industry stood at 83.5 million. The February figure is the latest official data in the industry.

“This unprecedented rise in the number of redundant telephone lines in the country is threatening the growth of the telecoms companies and the sector,” a senior manager in one of the top four telcos, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk on the subject, said.

He added, “The rising profile of inactive telephone lines in the country constitutes heavy revenue loss for telecoms operators, especially at a time the economic recession is biting harder across sectors, and the revenue loss continues to rise monthly.

The Vice President, Medallion Communications, Mr. Ike Nnamani, said, “The N156.3bn loss is as a result of subscribers abandoning their registered lines instead of using same to access mobile services; and when this is the case, the affected operators are losing potential revenue.”

Source