About 10.3 million telephone users were connected and reconnected in 2025 as Nigeria ended the year with 179.6 million active telephone users.

This is according to the last subscription (December) data released yesterday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which also put the country’s teledensity at 82.8 per cent.

Teledensity is a key telecommunications metric that represents the number of active telephone connections (both mobile and fixed-line) per 100 people in a specific geographic area, expressed as a percentage. It serves as a vital indicator of telecom penetration, infrastructure development, and economic growth, often highlighting disparities between urban and rural areas.

Nigeria started 2025 with 169.3 million users in January and, by December, grew by 10.3 million to 179.6 million.

This comes amid the cleansing brought about by the NIN-SIM verification exercise completed in the third quarter of 2024.

The data put MTN ahead with 93 million users and 51.87 per cent market share. Airtel followed with 60.8 million users and 33.9 per cent market reach. Globacom ranked third with 12.4 per cent national spread and 22.2 million subscribers, while T2, formerly 9mobile, ended the year with 3.22 million customers and 1.80 per cent market reach.

In terms of technology deployed the most in the sector, the data put 4G ahead with 52.95 per cent; 2G, 37.37 per cent; 3G, 5.91 per cent and 5G, which is going into its fourth year of operation in Nigeria at 3.77 per cent. It means that 5G network is only enjoyed by 6.77 million subscribers, while 4G sits well with 95 million telephone users in the country.

Further analysis showed that for 2025, data consumption surged past 13.2 million terabytes 2025, which was about a 35 per cent increase over 2024.

NCC puts the December data consumption figure at 1,386,238.23 terabytes.