Report projects Nigeria's telecoms' market growth by six per cent

UNITED Kingdom-based firm, Pyramid Research, has predicted expansion of about six per cent growth in Nigeria's telecommunications market.The growth, according to Pyramid Research is expected within the next six years, starting from 2011 and 2016. Besides, the report believed the expansion will basically come from the yet to be served areas across the country.The report noted that the competitive landscape of Nigeria's telecom sector has forced operators to roll out new infrastructure to improve coverage and quality, which has resulted in a surge of subscription growth and usage.The Pyramid Research survey titled: 'Nigeria: New Ministry, Infrastructure Investments and ICT Policies Boost Market' provided a detailed competitive analysis of both fixed and mobile sectors, tracks the market shares of technologies and services and monitors the introduction and spread of new technologies.Author of the research, the Associate Research Analyst at Pyramid Research, Ronda Zelezny-Green, said, 'Mobile services will benefit handsomely from these investments, with the sector as a whole expanding at a rate of 5.9 per cent in dollar terms between 2011 and 2016.'According to her, Nigerians located in remote areas will begin to gain notice because almost every operator has made overtures that indicate they plan to expand into underserved areas in order to make headway toward achieving higher levels of growth. The lack of a strong fixed-line network has boosted uptake of mobile connectivity services.Zelezny-Green said that this would be a contributing factor to the growth of 3G services, which is expected to expand at a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.9 per cent between 2011 and 2016.The competitive landscape of Nigeria's telecom sector has forced operators to roll out new infrastructure to improve coverage and quality, which has resulted in a surge of subscription growth and usage. MTN Nigeria spent approximately $1billion on network improvements in 2011 in order to improve service quality.Fixed service revenue, excluding pay-TV, is expected to contract at a CAGR of -8.4 per cent, a decline which can be attributed to drops in fixed circuit-switched voice and dial-up Internet revenue streams. Pay-TV will be a bright spot for the Nigerian telecom industry, and is expected to grow from an estimated $672 million in 2011 to $862 million by 2016.
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