4G dominant as rural areas get new 4,000 base stations

Nigeria’s telephone coverage reached 80.87 per cent in October, based on the new industry statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Telephone coverage, otherwise known as teledensity, measures telephone access by counting telephone connections (mobile or fixed) per 100 people in a region, indicating telecom penetration and economic development, often varying significantly between urban/rural areas and countries, with growth driven by mobile tech and broadband expansion.

Subscription statistics from NCC showed that the country attained a new height between September and October 2025, where active telephone subscriptions rose from 173.5 million to 175 million from over 310 million connected lines. This means telecom operators activated or reactivated some 1.54 million new Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards in October, which subsequently deepened coverage in the country.

Further analysis of the data showed that 4G technology remained the dominant network in Nigeria with 51.77 per cent usage. Followed by 2G at 38.4 per cent, 3G, which is nearing sunset in some parts of the globe, has 6.34 per cent penetration. 5G continued to struggle at 3.49 per cent.

More Nigerians are still connected to the Internet via the narrowband, where subscriptions rose from 140.9 million to 142.6 million between September and October. Broadband users rose to 108 million with 49.8 per cent penetration, which is 20.2 per cent away from the 70 per cent target for 2025.

MEANWHILE, the 50 per cent tariff hike introduced on January 20, 2025, by the telecom operators with the approval of the Federal Government has not stopped Nigerians from consuming data. For instance, from February to September, aggregately, Nigerians spent about N2.5 trillion on data. This subsequently pushed the terabytes consumed from 893,054.80 to 1,235,459.47.

By the 50 per cent hike, the price of calls became N9.6 per minute from N6.40 and the ceiling (maximum acceptable) price to N75 from N50; the cost of SMS to N6 from N4; and the cost of 1GB of data to N431.25 from N287.5. The average price of calls hovered around N16.5 per minute from N11.

Checks by The Guardian showed that in Q2 2025, MTN Nigeria’s data revenue jumped by 85.6 per cent to N701 billion from N377 billion recorded in the same period last year.

For Airtel Nigeria, data revenue within the same period rose by 60.3 per cent to N260 billion ($168 million) against the N185.4 billion ($117 million) recorded in the same period of 2024.

Analysts believed that the surge in data consumption has been fuelled by large enterprises and recent competition by telcos and surviving Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which scaled up activities around Fibre-To-The-House/Home (FTTH), especially in urban centres.

Further analysis of the new data showed that MTN remained the largest operator in Nigeria with 91 million customers and 52 per cent penetration. It is followed in a distant second by Airtel with 59 million subscribers and 33.7 per cent penetration. Globacom is third with 12.5 per cent national coverage and 21.8 million customers, while T2, formerly 9mobile as of October 2025, had 3.13 million users and 1.79 per cent coverage of the country.

In a related development, telephone services in the rural areas may experience a turnaround following the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the deployment of 4,000 telecommunications towers to underserved communities across Nigeria, a move it said will boost national security and close the urban-rural connectivity gap.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this in Abuja. Announcing the decision, Idris said, “The FEC has taken a decision that 4,000 of such towers be established or erected in these very underserved communities across this country.

“Indeed, this will also help in fighting insecurity and enhancing commerce and economic activity amongst the people of those communities. Under that programme, about 4,000 towers will be erected in underserved communities.

“The presentation of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy indicates that about 23 million Nigerians are underserved, meaning that they are unable to do any form of communication due to the absence of some of these towers.

“The rollout is expected to significantly improve rural connectivity, stimulate commerce and enhance security surveillance in areas lacking network coverage.”