Unused SIM cards increased to 51.4 million in April, says NCC

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said on Wednesday that unused Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards on telecommunication operators’ networks increased from 50,615,202 in March to 51,464,766 as at April 2015.
This is contained in the commission’s ”Monthly Subscriber Data” in Lagos.
The data showed that the dormant numbers increased by 849,564 in the month under review.
It revealed that connected numbers on the telecom networks also increased from 194,549,410 recorded in March to 196,941,125 in the month of April.
The data indicated that of the 51,464,766 dormant SIM cards in April, the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) operators shared 49,711,964.
It also showed that of the unused 51,464,766 lines in April, the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks shared 1,565,647.
According to the data, the Fixed Wired/Wireless networks shared 187,188 inactive lines of the dormant SIM cards in April.
The increase on inactive lines indicated that telecoms users purchase SIM cards but dump them for a long period, hence making the lines go dormant.