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Top1. Introduction
The Nigeria Telecommunication and Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector remains the indispensable non-oil growth driver and principal provider of the overall nation economy, championed by the substantial youthful population and the prompt adoption of mobile internet services that characterized the broadband regime of the current digital economy(Dieli PhD, 2021). The Nigeria Telecommunication industry is prominently dominated by four largely mobile operators namely; Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN), Globacom Nigeria (Glo), Airtel Nigeria (Airtel) and 9Mobile.The Nigeria Telecommunication industry continues on a stable growth trajectory, as the increase in demand of smartphones penetration and investment in mobile internet network is pushing the market beyond its threshold(Campbell et al., 2017). Attempt has been made by the government to boost the broadband penetration towards achieving its ambitious broadband sustainability in the mid-term expansion targets while deploying the new 5G network infrastructure(Oughton, Frias, Russell, Sicker, & Cleevely, 2018). The expressive mobile technology growth has also necessitated progressions in the ongoing regulatory dispositions of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) realignments to reforms implementation intended to improve customer protection and national security alertness, in addition to guaranteeing justifiable distribution of telecommunication’s economic advantages(Ghosh, 2017). The NCC efforts, which involved rolling out compulsory SIM card registration and motivating the influential telecommunication actor MTN Nigeria to commence the initial public offering (IPO) of 5G network technology infrastructural implementation to facilitate a stable long-term market development(Onyeajuwa, 2017).
However, many Nigerians assessment have continued to intensify regarding the excessive business costs and the over oppressive tax regime occasioned by the telecommunication operators. The telecommunication industry participants are also curious of the determination of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to constrain the operators from proffering mobile money services even though CBN and NCC agreed in November 2017 to permit the telecommunication operators to offer mobile money services via a distinctive purpose vehicle, unfortunately the telecoms companies are still unable to render those service effectively. Nigeria as the African biggest mobile phone market with over 190 million subscribers and a penetration rate of 123% teledensity in 2020(CHINDA, 2020). The preliminary intensification in the amount of the subscribers had ran into complications with prevalent network overcrowdingness and degradation in the quality of service performances, pressuring the NCC to enforce sanctions and fines on the telecommunication network operators(Mwakatumbula, Moshi, & Mitomo, 2019). Consequently, the telecommunication network operators in Nigeria have reacted by massive deployment of fibre transmission infrastructure and network base stations intensification to support the cumulative network service requirements. The swift passage from CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) platform to GSM (Global System for Mobiles) technology is almost completed and though GSM still dominates the telecommunication market, there is a growing shift to services based on LTE(Long Term Evolution)(Habibi, Nasimi, Han, & Schotten, 2019). Even though LTE coverages are comparatively low, investment among operators are outspreading the extend of the services which will assist the development of consumer use of mobile data services. The substantial growth capability in the rural areas where the provision of network infrastructure and operations are expensive, in addition to diminutive mobile penetration, the government is planning broadband regime penetration to 70 percent by 2021 which will depend on the availability of the mobile telecommunication infrastructure(J. Kim, Park, & Komarek, 2021). The GSM subscription continued to be the principal constituent of the total active mobile subscription throughout the previous year in the Nigeria business investment ecosystem(Navarro-Ortiz et al., 2020). In the fourth quarter of 2020, Nigeria recorded 204,601,313 GMS based active voice subscriptions nationwide and 301,327,711 connected GSM lines within the period under review (Dieli PhD, 2021).