In one of the major telecoms market upsets of 2010, Globacom has emerged the 2nd largest mobile operator in Nigeria, by subscribers.

The NCC Telecom Subscriber’s Report released recently showed Globacom Nigeria with 19, 627,415 subscribers as at December 2010, and grossing over 3.7 million subscribers more than rival Airtel Nigeria (formerly Zain Nigeria).

MTN Nigeria, on the other hand, continued to lead the telecoms market with over 38 million subscribers (a huge chasm of over 19 million subscribers seperating it from Globacom Nigeria).

Another major market upset was recorded by Etisalat Nigeria, which saw the most bullish growth of 25.37% and a year-end subscriber base of 6.7 million subscribers.

Key Highlights of Q4 2010:

- There are currently 89.8 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria (88 million as at Q4 2010)

- A 6.37% mobile subscriptions growth increase over the preceding quarter

- Globacom Nigeria grossed over 3.7 million new subscribers with a bullish growth of 11.48%

- Etisalat Nigeria recorded the most bullish growth with 25.37% in the last quarter

- MTN Nigeria with 5.89% growth, remained market leader with over 38 million subscribers, the size of Glo and Airtel’s subscribers put together.

- Airtel Nigeria experienced a slight growth of 1.81% recording 15.8 million subscribers within the same period

Within the CDMA market, Visafone accounted for over 2.5 million subscribers, followed by Multilinks Telkom with over 1.4 million subscribers, while Starcomms came third with over 1.1 million subscribers and Reltel finished with over 900,000 subscribers.

As the industry marks its 10th anniversary of commercial GSM rollout in August 2011, operators are neck deep into the price war for lower voice call rates as well as new and cheaper data plans.

While MTN Nigeria seems to be winning the subscriber base war, which operator is likely to win the price war?