The country’s mobile phone penetration has reached the 805 per cent mark as of the end of August, 2011. This means that out of a population of 24,722,485, there are19,893,191 subscribers on at least one of the five active mobile networks in the country. The number of subscribers for January stood at 17.43 million. From the latest industry statistics released on the National Communications Authority (NCA) official website, MTN is maintaining its lead as the country's biggest mobile phone company with 9.8 million subscribers, representing 48.49 per cent of the market. The company started the year with 8.9 million as of the end of January and has, in spite of stiff competition, managed to maintain its lead. With this trend, MTN, which recorded its nine millionth subscribers before the end of the first quarter of this year, seems to be on track to register its 10 millionth customer by the end of the year. tiGO, operated by Millicom Ghana, also maintained its number two position having moved its subscriber base from 3.92 million in January to 4.2 million subscribers as of the end of August, to control 20.59 per cent of the market. Vodafone, which is in the third slot, control US$18.48 per cent of the market with 3.73 million subscribers. Its subscriber base for January was 2.81 million. The Indian-owned Airtel trails in the fourth position with approximately 10 per cent of the market with a total customer base of 2.0 million as of the end of the month under review, having held 1.6 million customers at the end of January. The case of Expresso, which until recently, was known as Kasapa continues to worsen as its subscriber base dipped from 244,674 in January to 206,606 in August. Responding to the latest NCA statistics release, the Corporate Services Executive of MTN, Mrs Cynthia Lumor said “We will continue to find innovative ways of enriching the lives of our customers”. According to her, one of the key objectives of the company is to increase data usage to field drive economic development in the country. It is still not immediately clear whether the implementation of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) a couple of months ago, which affords subscribers the choice to move from one network to another without losing one’s numbers, has any impact on the new figures released. But each of the operators has stepped up its game with numerous offers and promotions to either maintain or induce more subscribers. These include mainly, reduction in the call tariffs and that of data services from the various networks. Meanwhile, attempts to reach the networks trailing MTN for their comments on the new industry statistics and how they intend to catch up with the leader proved futile at the time of going to press.