Nigeria has recorded an increase in the number of active lines in the country. Latest figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed more than 120,000 new lines in November 2015.

According to the latest edition of NCC's Monthly Subscriber Data, 120,048 new lines were added which means Nigeria had 152,123,172 active numbers at the end of the period, of which 149,787,120 were GSM subscribers.

Further analysis of the figures showed there were 103,861 new GSM subscribers within the period, an increment to the 149,683,259 subscribers recorded in October 2015.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators also gained new users, with the number increasing to 2,149,120 active users in November from 2,130,345 customers in October 2015, representing an addition of 18,775 new lines.

Drop in fixed line subscribers

However, the number of subscribers on fixed wired/ wireless networks declined. According to the statistics there were 186,775 subscribers in November compared to 189, 517 in October, representing a loss of 2,742 customers.

Within the period under review, Nigeria recorded a 0.09% increase in teledensity, rising to 108.66% in November, from 108.57% in the month of October.

Local technology analyst Wale Oladapo believes the latest figures may not be an indication of new subscribers. He argues that many telecoms subscribers in Nigeria are buying new lines to remain connected if operators proceed with blocking lines as a result of incomplete registration.

"Take MTN subscribers for example, many of them are still receiving SMS from the network regarding SIM registration. We are seeing several of the subscribers purchasing new lines to ensure that they are still connected when the operator cuts them off," he said.

Fellow industry expert, Seyi Ibidapo said the increase in number of subscribers may be as a result of the announcement of offers by the various operators forcing the subscriber to buy new lines in order to access offers from the various networks.

According to Ibidapo this is fuelled by the availability of mobile phones that can allow users to use two or more lines at the same time.

"You can be getting the best data offer on Globacom while MTN offers you a very cheap rate to a group of contacts. Airtel and Etisalat on the other hand may be giving their users unique offers so you see Nigerians going around with 2, 3 or 4 SIM cards. This is not an unusual thing in the industry especially these days when phones with dual SIM capability are the fastest selling in the market," he said.

He advised the NCC to go beyond publishing number of active lines in Nigeria and rather find a way to measure the impact of the new lines on the telecoms and tech ecosystems. "We need to know whether we are really seeing new users or just old users that are changing lines in order to access better call and data plans," he said.