Ghana attains 75% mobile phone penetration end of 2010

The number of people using mobile phones in Ghana has hit 75% of the country’s estimated 23 million population.

According to statistics on the website of the industry regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), the total number of mobile phone subscribers in Ghana is over 17.4 million at December end 2010. It puts the figure specifically at 17, 436, 949 subscribers which is an increase of 2.2% from the November figure of 17,062,917. And the 2.2% increase in subscriber rates in the month of December is the highest increase in the entire year 2010.

The five of the six licensed mobile phone companies in the country share the subscribers. These are Expresso, 239, 815; Tigo, 3, 999, 262, MTN which has the largest market share has 8, 721,249; Vodafone, 2,722,364; and Airtel, 1,754,259.  The sixth provider, Glo is yet to start operations.

This growth is notwithstanding the fact that the introduction of compulsory SIM registration, which became effective on July 1, 2010, was expected to result in much weaker mobile customer growth in 2010, compared with 2009.

The SIM registeration is also expected to result in the widespread deduction of inactive and unregistered mobile customers by the operators.

Landline or fixed network subscriptions on the other have dropped significantly during the same period.
The two companies offering landlines, Vodafone and Airtel recorded a total of 277,897 subscribers. This is a decline of 13.5% from the month of November total of 321,349 fixed lines.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi