Nigeria’s total active telecom subscriber numbers reached 121.8 million at the end of October 2013.

This is according to a report released last week by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which revealed that the country’s active subscriber numbers grew by 600,000 between September and October 2013.

The NCC report includes data collected from active Global System for Mobile (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) as well as fixed wired and wireless network subscriptions.

The report shows that in September 2013 Nigeria’s active subscriber base was recorded at 121.2 million and grew to reach 121.8 million by October last year.

The number of active mobile GSM connections also increased during this period, jumping from 118.4 million to 119.1 million, reveals the report.

Meanwhile, active mobile CDMA connections have been in the same region of 2.4 million subscribers dating back from August 2013 to October 2013.

According Ademola Balogun, analyst at Africa Analysis in Nigeria, the ‘financial muscle’ of GSM operators such as MTN, Airtel, Etisalat and Globacom makes it very difficult for CDMA operators to compete.

“In the not too distant future one would begin to see these CDMA operators being taken over by the ‘bigger boys’ with the CDMA operators acting as conduits for delivering service to niche markets,” Balogun said.

Also indicated in the report is a decline in the country’s total connected subscribers from 171.9 million to 169.9 million during the same period. This number differs from the active user figure because of subscribers that have, for example, more than one SIM card.