Joy Agwunobi
Nigeria’s telecom industry suffered its sharpest subscriber contraction in five months in July 2025, but T2 Mobile, formerly known as 9mobile, emerged as the sole operator to record net customer gains, according to fresh data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The NCC’s industry performance report shows that T2 Mobile added 290,601 new users in July, expanding its subscriber base from 2.4 million in June to 2.7 million. This rebound marked the operator’s first net growth after several years, lifting its market share slightly from 1.4 percent to 1.6 percent.
The growth coincides with a series of turnaround efforts by the struggling operator, including a corporate rebrand to T2 Mobile in August 2025 and a national roaming partnership with MTN Nigeria, which was officially announced in July.
The roaming deal approved by the NCC—gives T2 customers access to MTN’s extensive nationwide infrastructure, addressing years of coverage limitations that had driven subscribers away.
By contrast, the rest of the sector contracted sharply in July. Airtel Nigeria led the losses, shedding 2.4 million subscribers to close at 56.5 million, down from 58.9 million in June. Globacom also saw its base slip by 143,701 to 20.7 million, while MTN Nigeria, the market leader, declined by 106,345 to finish the month with 89.1 million subscribers.
Despite the monthly setbacks, MTN maintained its dominance with 52.70 percent market share, followed by Airtel with 33.42 percent and Globacom with 12.26 percent. T2 Mobile remained in a distant fourth place, but its July rebound signaled early signs of recovery after years of steady decline.
The industry’s collective loss of subscribers in July marked the steepest drop since February 2025, reinforcing concerns about the sector’s struggle to regain growth momentum in the aftermath of tariff increases introduced in January.
However, higher call and data rates may not fully explain the contraction. NCC data shows that Nigeria’s internet data traffic continued to rise steadily, reaching a record 1,131,255.9 terabytes in July 2025, underlining consumers’ increasing reliance on digital services such as online banking, e-commerce, and video streaming.
At the same time, the country’s teledensity, an indicator of the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants fell to 78.11 percent in July, down from 79.22 percent in June. The NCC calculates teledensity based on a national population estimate of 216 million.
The shifts also reflect ongoing structural adjustments in the telecom sector. In 2024, the NCC embarked on a sweeping audit of subscriber data to enhance accuracy and eliminate inflated reporting. The exercise led to the removal of over 64 million inactive SIM cards, cutting Nigeria’s active mobile base from 219.01 million in March 2024 to 154.63 million by September of the same year.
For T2 Mobile, the July growth marks a turning point. Once a competitive fourth operator, the company saw its network quality deteriorate in recent years amid financial constraints that stalled infrastructure investment.
The roaming deal with MTN, combined with its recent rebrand, appears to have restored some customer confidence, positioning the telco for a possible comeback in a challenging market environment.
