Recent figures contained in the National Communications Authority (NCA) mobile voice subscriber report show that Expresso's subscriber base has gone up by 274,550 from December 2014 to January 2015, its biggest gain yet.

This is despite the challenges the CDMA operator has been bedeviled with in recent times.

The operator over the past months has seen its calls to  MTN blocked, while financial challenges and issues with ownership  threatened smooth operation.

However, in the latest report, Expresso's subscriber base has been described as modest by industry watchers, although it still possesses under 1% of the market share - 0.59 percent.

Meanwhile, Vodafone emerged the biggest gainer in the latest  mobile voice subscription figures released by the industry regulator.

Vodafone finished the first month of the year with about 7.2million subs representing a significant increase from 7.07 million.

The country's Mobile Voice subscriber base increased from December 2014 figure of 30,360,771 by 1.40% to end January 2015 at 30,784,505.

The penetration rate for the month under review was 108.48%.

MTN’s subscriber base increased marginally from 13,852,398 at the end of the previous month to end January with 13,939,936.  

Their market share at the end of the review period was 45.6%.

Similarly, Vodafone’s subscriber base increased to 7,177,032 at the end of January as compared to December’s figure of 7,069,516.

However, Vodafone’s market share decreased from 23.29% in December to 21.97% at the end of January.

Tigo’s subscriber base increased from 4,133,760 at the end of the previous month to end January with 4,202,923.  Their market share also increased to 14.28%.

In the same line, Airtel’s subscriber base also increased to 3,751,135 at the end of the month under review from the December 2014 figure of 3,735,656. Airtel’s increase in subscriber base reflected in an increase of its market to 12.35%.

Expresso ended the month of January with a subscriber base of 274,550 showing an increase from the previous month’s figure of 199,059. This was reflected in their market share of 0.59% for their CDMA network.

Glo’s subscriber base recorded a decrease from December 2014 figure of 1,450,382 to end January with a figure of 1,438,929 indicating a decrease of 0.78%. 

However their market share indicated an increase to 5.17% at the end of the review month.