Lagos – A total of 1.74 million fixed lines and wireless telephones were inactive in Nigeria in  February, according to data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The data, obtained on Wednesday in Lagos, indicated that only 578,152 lines out of 2,319,228 fixed lines, were in active usage.

In spite the reduction in the usage, it was observed that there was a marginal increase in new lines by 2,104 lines from 2,317,124 lines in January to 2,319,228 lines in February.

Out of the 131,822,952 phone subscribers in the country,  the GSM operators had 116,439,548 subscribers, the CDMA networks had 13, 064, 176 subscribers , while the fixed lines had 2,319,228 customers, in February.

Out of the 131,822,952 lines in February, only 96,616,580 were active, an increase of 465,744 subscribers over the 96,150,836 active subscribers in January.

Also of the 96,616,580  active lines on all the networks, 92,006,608 subscribers were on the GSM, 4,031,820 subscribers on CDMA networks, and 578,152 subscribers on the fixed wired/wireless networks.

The total installed capacity on the GSM platform increased by 4,544,967 lines from 147,004,416 lines in January to 151,549,383 lines in February.

The installed capacity of the CDMA remained at 17,232,725 lines in February, while that of the fixed networks remained at 9,394,042 lines during the month..

The installed capacity means the total number of telephone lines that a network can conveniently accommodate without leading congestion or poor  quality of service..

The data showed that the GSM networks have expanded their networks and ready to accommodate more customers, while the CDMA and the fixed networks have not shown much improvement. (NAN)