August 31, 2013

How Did Globacom Increase Its Internet Subscribers 25-fold In One Month?

Since I read Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, my fascination for statistics has grown. This fascination, plus my background as a Communications Engineer, led me to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) website to check the Operator Statistics for Glo, MTN, Airtel and Etisalat for January to June 2013.

And I found something.

The table below is from the NCC website. It shows the number of active internet subscriptions for each Mobile Operator from February 2013 to June 2013.

Can you notice anything about it?
If you cannot still see it, I'll explain. From right to left, it shows:
  1. Airtel had 8.2 million active internet subscriptions in May 2013 and 9.3 million in June 2013. A respectable increase of 13.8%.
  2. Etisalat had 5.18 million active internet subscriptions in May 2013 and 5.17 million in June 2013. Slight decrease of 0.13%. Not terrible.
  3. MTN had 24.4 million active internet subscriptions in May 2013 and 24.6 million in June 2013. An increase of 0.78%. Fair.
  4. Globacom had 351,263 active internet subscriptions in May 2013 and 9.1 million in June 2013. An increase of nearly 2500%.
Here's how it looks on a graph.


Looking from May 2013 to June 2013 in the graph above, you can see the massive growth of the light-green part of the bar for June.

Alright. How does a Telecom Operator add over 8 million Active Internet Subscribers in just One Month?

Innovative Marketing? Free Internet?

I do not claim to know all that goes on in the Telecoms Industry, but I sure do keep myself informed. Yet, I can't explain it.

So, how do you think it happened?



PS: You can find these graphs on the NCC website here. When you're at the webpage, click on "Internet Subscriber Data (July 2012 - June 2013)". Visit using a JavaScript enabled browser.
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10 comments:

  1. LotaAugust 31, 2013 at 11:09 PM

    The growth percentage is quite unbelievable, and it's possible I am doubting the authenticity of the given statistics. However, if I must give possible factor(s) behind that sort of growth, I would say it resulted from improved facilities such as some of the huge investments Glo made into optic fibre cables running underneath the ocean from Africa to Europe. The improved facilities offered better data services to consumers and that resulted to consumers turning in to purchase their services. Additionally, free data services with lots of promotional activities must have contributed too. I think these two factors should be the reasonable factors behind the huge progress.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MeSeptember 1, 2013 at 7:11 PM

      Lota.....these infrastructure have been there for quite a while. Although Glo has the resources to reach this, the jump can still not be explained by the resources.

      Delete
  2. ikSeptember 1, 2013 at 10:28 PM

    To me I think they released fake statistics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MeSeptember 1, 2013 at 10:36 PM

      Ik.....to the best of my knowledge, NCC checks these details properly. The chances of these statistics being fake are rather little

      Delete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2013 at 8:41 AM

    Glo owes us an explanation.. It looks so un-real.. But.. NCC should have an explanation for this

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MeSeptember 2, 2013 at 7:44 PM

      Its really interesting when you look through from June 2012 to July 2013...the slow decline and the sharp rise...Glo must have done something radically different.

      Delete
  4. YemiSeptember 2, 2013 at 9:19 AM

    I think it is down to very poor record keeping or collation by the NCC. Considering the number of subscribers Glo has I find it hard to believe they had less than a million internet subscribers. 2nd largest customer base does not in anyway translate into that kind of internet user base. What happened to all their BlackBerry users and wap users and modem users? I doubt they became 2nd largest telecoms company based solely on calls.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MeSeptember 2, 2013 at 10:22 AM

      Your point is valid, Yemi. But, also consider that in the NCC chart http://www.ncc.gov.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:art-statistics-industry&catid=65:cat-web-statistics&Itemid=70

      If you check that, you'll find that June 2012 was the last recorded time that Globacom had over 1 million internet subscribers.

      I believe Glo had some issues that caused the decline. If it were just inaccurate NCC record keeping, it would affect the other Mobile Operators as well.

      Delete
  5. UnknownSeptember 3, 2013 at 10:09 PM

    very erroneous data such increase in impossible judging by the horrible QOS provided by GLO
    BY
    ECHE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MeSeptember 4, 2013 at 3:37 AM

      I personally don't get the increase, but I think the reason will get clearer soon

      Delete

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