Three Telecos Drop Market Shares

Three major telecom companies in the country have dropped some market shares as of the end of November last year according to the National Telecommunications Authority. The three are tiGO, the third biggest telecom company in the country; fifth placed GLO and Expresso, while the gainers were MTN, Vodafone and Airtel. tiGO had its subscriber base decrease marginally to 3,673,934 subscribers representing 14.34 per cent of the total market share as against the 3,757,977 subscribers it recorded in the third quarter of the year which put its share of the market then at 15 per cent. GLO, which entered the market with a lot of vim and optimism to beat Expresso to the fifth position seem to have run out of steam. The company�s subscriber base for the month ending November 2012 decreased for the third time in a row to 1,578,446, representing 6.16 per cent of the total market share. It had managed to post a subscriber base figure of 1,610,434 representing seven per cent of total market share at the end of the third quarter of the year under review. Expresso, which market share has been dropping in most part of 2012, saw another decrease in its subscriber base to 168,572, representing 0.66 per cent of the total market share. As at the end of September last year, its subscriber base stood at 178,071 which represent a paltry one per cent of the market. On the other hand, MTN Ghana increased its market share from 45 per cent to 45.33 as at the end of November last year. This came at a time when the company faced a lot of challenges on its network which eventually led to a ban on the sale of its Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards by the industry regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA). With this achievement, the company maintains its lead with a subscriber base of 11,615,801 as against 11,269,926 subscribers recorded in the month of September the same year. A source at MTN described the achievement as an indication of the trust reposed in the company�s brand and pledged its commitment to do more to excite its customers while enticing others to join. On the other hand, the second biggest telecommunications company in the country, Vodafone, saw a rise in its subscriber base to 5,175,377 which represents 20.20 per cent of total market share.? Vodafone, which has also been consistent with its drive to entice the market, recorded a total subscriber figure of 5,027,207 which represents 20 per cent of total market share for the month of September to end the third quarter of the year on a positive note. Airtel increased its subscriber base to 3,132,615 representing 12.23 per cent of the total market share from 3,040,580, representing 12 per cent at the end of September last year. Airtel is currently running one of the juiciest promotions in the industry dubbed �Airtel Deedew� promotion, a move which might draw more subscribers to its fold. On the other hand, the total cellular/mobile Voice Subscriber Base in the country as at November, 2012 reached 25.3 million as against the September 2012 figure which stood at 24.8 million.