The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has announced that telephone penetration in Nigeria has surpassed 100 percent. This revelation is contained in the commission's Monthly Subscriber Data.

According to NCC, Nigeria's teledensity is now 100.59 per cent as at the end of Jan. 2015 and active lines/phone numbers on the telecommunications operators' networks reach 140.82million

Teledensity refers to the percentage of a country's population with access to telephony services as determined by the active subscriber base. It is directly related to the number of mobile subscriptions on telecoms networks as it grows as subscriber base does and vice versa.

NCC said it computed teledensity based on population estimate of 126 million up till Dec. 2005; from Dec. 2006, it was based on a population estimate of 140 million. From Dec. 2001 to 2006, teledensity was based on connected subscribers.

However, teledensity from Dec. 2007 has been based on active subscriptions on mobile networks.

Industry teledensity stood at 91.40 per cent as at Jan. 2014, hence increased by 9.19 per cent to reach 100.59 per cent by Jan. 2015. In Feb. 2014, it moved up to 91.40 per cent; 92.14 per cent in March and at the end of April, the figure declined to 90.78 per cent.

In May, June and July, the figures moved to 92.42 per cent; 93.70 per cent and 94.84 per cent respectively. While in August and September, telephony penetration increased to 95.20 per cent and 96.08 per cent, it increased to 96.87 per cent in October, 97.60 per cent and 99.32 in Dec. 2014.

According to NCC, the proportional growth in teledensity suggested that that access to telephone services was getting deeper in Nigeria.