The Nigerian Communications Commission has announced a record monthly data consumption of 721,522 terabytes in January 2024, the highest ever recorded in the country.
According to data obtained on Tuesday from the regulator’s website, the record surpassed December 2023, which stood at 713,200 terabytes.
Active Internet subscriptions totalled 161,977,883, a substantial increase from the 156,244,368 subscriptions recorded in January of the preceding year.
Service providers that make up the number of Internet subscriptions include; telcos (mobile), Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Fixed.
Mobile subscriptions accounted for 161,504,390, with Internet service providers—wired or wireless—recording 213,876 subscriptions, fixed wire connections totalling 21,437, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) reaching 238,180.
The report showed that January 2024 witnessed a decline of 1.9 million Internet users compared to December 2023, dropping from 163.8 million to 161.9 million.
Internet penetration remained at 42.53 per cent, with broadband subscriptions totalling 92,195,937 million.
The data show that 2G connections remain predominant, but the proportion of 4G subscriptions has been steadily rising.
In terms of market share by network generations, 2G accounted for 57.78 per cent in January 2024, 3G was 9.36 per cent in January, and in December 2023, it was 9.80 per cent.
4G subscriptions increased from 31.33 per cent in December 2023 to 31.75 per cent, indicating a growing preference for high-speed connectivity.
5G subscriptions accounted for 1.11 per cent of all connections in Nigeria in January 2024, up from 1.04 per cent recorded in December 2023.