MTN Group’s subscriber numbers grew 4 percent in the third quarter, the cellular operator reported yesterday, adding that it had been warned by Nigeria’s regulator to improve its service. MTN said it had 158.6 million subscribers at the end of September. Some of its bigger percentage gains were in Iran and Syria, as well as Uganda and South Africa. MTN also said its Nigerian unit was one of three operators that had been warned by the local regulator to improve service quality. It was given till the end of November meet the regulator’s targets. Failure to comply would mean it would have to halt the sale of SIM cards and face a financial penalty. The company said that Nigeria’s government should specify what services in the country needed to improve so it could deal with them. – Bloomberg and Reuters