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The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Umar Danbatta, has said telephone lines withdrawn from telecom operators, is to allow for good management of resources.
TheNewsGuru reports 36.6 million telephone lines were withdrawn from some telecommunications operators from the National Numbering Plan (NNP) by NCC in March this year.
The NCC boss explained that the telephone lines were found to be redundant.
“Those are lines that are redundant. We always give statistics about active lines. We have noticed that the teledensity growing, steadily growing for six to seven months and has exceeded 150 million mark.
“It is expected of NCC that resources that are not being put into use were withdrawn so that this can in turn be a sign to all operators so that they can put them in good use and activate them.
“These are redundant lines that were withdrawn and if something is redundant, it means they are not being put to use.
“We do not have time to allow resources to waste. The intention is to ensure that all resources at our disposal, number resources and spectrum resources, are put into good use and to the benefit of this country,” Danbatta said.
The Commission said active mobile telephone lines in the country in lieu of the withdrawn 36.6 million telephone lines increased to 162 million.
It stated that mobile lines figure was as at the end of May, adding that it rose from 160 million recorded in April.
With 162, 075,116 lines in May and 160, 081,051 in April, the increase in the number of lines was 1,994,065.
However, the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) for active mobile lines had 217,566 users in May, same as in April.
In a report, NCC said that the number of fixed wired/wireless for active mobile lines in May was 137, 010 compared to April, which had 136, 496 lines, indicating an increase of 514 lines.
According to NCC, the number of Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) was 93,080 in May compared with 89,477 recorded in April, representing a rise of 3,603.
It also revealed that Teledensity rose by 143 in May to 11,609 as against 11,466 in April.
TheNewsGuru reports teledensity is the number of telephone connections for every 100 individuals living within an area and it varies widely across the country.
NCC also said that the number of connected mobile lines in May increased to 240,259,751 from 238,032,318 in April, recording an increase of 2, 227,433.
“The CDMA for connected lines for May was 3,586,095, the same figure with April,’’ the subscribers’ data revealed.
The report said the number of fixed wired/wireless for connected lines in May was 345,210 compared to April that had 344, 892, an increase of 318 lines.
It also showed that the number of VOIP for connected lines in May was 611,376 as against 575,712 in April, rising by 35,644 lines.