Nigeria’s internet data consumption has reached a record-breaking 721,522 terabytes by January this year, according to official telecoms market figures reviewed by Technology Times.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which announced the figures on its official website also revealed that the country reached its highest monthly internet data consumption of 721,522 terabytes as at January 2024.
In relatable terms, a typical full-length high-definition movie might be around 2-5 GB in size. So, 721,522 TB of data consumed in Nigeria would be enough to store roughly 147 billion to 378 billion HD movies. Also, with an average quality MP3 song being around 3-4 MB, with 721,522 TB, you could store around 189 trillion to 252 trillion songs. Both examples underscore the enormous data consumption volume representing an immense amount of information exchange among Nigeria’s data consumers.
“In relatable terms, a typical full-length high-definition movie might be around 2-5 GB in size. So, 721,522 TB of data consumed in Nigeria would be enough to store roughly 147 billion to 378 billion HD movies. Also, with an average quality MP3 song being around 3-4 MB, with 721,522 TB, you could store around 189 trillion to 252 trillion songs. Both examples underscore the enormous data consumption volume representing an immense amount of information exchange among Nigeria’s data consumers.“
Nigeria’s data consumption growth trend
The telecoms regulator, which reported the telecoms market figures on Tuesday, that showed the highest data consumption was reached in January, surpassing December 2023 data, which stood at 713,200 terabytes.
The different service providers that make up the number of internet subscriptions on January includes GSM networks, recording 161,504,390; Internet Service Providers (ISPs)—wired or wireless—, recording 213,876 subscriptions, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), reaching 238,180 and fixed (wired) connections totalling 21,437.
However, by December 2023, the number of active internet subscribers showed a total of 163,838,439 million, surpassing January’s record which declined to 161,977,883 million.
Focusing on GSM, information on the number of active subscribers for data (internet) services are highlighted below:
At December 2023, active number of internet subscribers by mobile operators are 70,659,889, 45,064,887,43,998,101, 3,630,769 for MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile respectively, totalling 163,353,643.
At January 2024, active number of subscribers by mobile operators are 67,822,889, 45,955,792, 44,190,414, 3,535,972 for MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile respectively, totalling 161,504,390.
With broadband subscriptions totalling 92,195,937 million in Nigeria, internet penetration remained at 42.53% in January 2024, December 2023 records higher figures with 94,757,184 million at 43.71%.
Data showed that 2G connections remains relevant, but the 4G subscriptions proportion has been steadily rising.
The market share by network technology generations showed that 2G recorded 57.78% in January 2024; 3G 9.36% in January, and 9.80% in December 2023.
4G subscriptions on the other hand increased from 31.33% in December 2023 to 31.75%, which shows a growing preference for high-speed connectivity. 5G subscriptions also recorded 1.11% in January 2024 up from 1.04% recorded in December 2023.
