Nigeria’s Broadband connectivity, service providers and industry sustainability

*Industry operators raise concerns about the survival of smaller Internet Service Providers, as the Nigerian Communications Commission recently licensed new entrants with potential heightened competition in the Broadband infrastructure and Internet connectivity space

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

As competition heightens with new entrants into the Broadband infrastructure and connectivity market, industry operators have raised concerns about the survival of smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the ecosystem.

The concerned players reportedly said such relatively small ISPs might struggle to survive without regulatory support, given the scale and investment capacity of dominant players, such as Starlink and Spectranet.

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ConsumerConnect reports the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently approved six new Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to operate in the country.

The telecoms industry regulator said the approval of the new licensees was part of measures to open up the Broadband market, and encourage healthy competition in regard to the much expected improvement in the Quality of Service (QoS) and enhanced telecoms consumers’ Quality of Experience (QoE).

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The new licensees are Intellvision Technologies Limited, Granet Technologies Limited, Fiber Sonic Limited, Dasol Solution Services Limited, Boost ISP Limited, and Amazon Kuiper Nigeria Limited.

The Commission stated that the development, which became effective from January 1, 2026, as contained in the NCC’s updated official licensing database.

With the six new entrants into Nigeria’s Broadband market, it was gathered the total number of licensed ISPs in Nigeria has increased to 231, up from 225 as of December 2025.

The NCC said the approval of the six new players reflected Nigeria’s openness to international Broadband providers, and the move would expand high-speed Internet access to telecoms consumers in underserved areas across the country.

Broadband providers and survival of small ISPs

While the NCC as the industry regulator emphasised the significance of opening up the sector to further global players for robust connectivity, particularly for consumers in the underserved areas, some noted the recent approvals came at a difficult time for “traditional ISPs”.

According to them, several conventional service providers are struggling to compete with lower-priced mobile data offerings from such giants as MTN Nigeria, Airtel Networks, Globacom and T2 (formerly 9mobile), as well as satellite Broadband services, such as Starlink, Spectranet and FibreOne.

Speaking on the survivability of the comparatively fringe players in the Broadband space, Chidi Ibisi, Executive Director of Business Development at Broadbased Communications Limited, reportedly said though smaller service providers are not seeking to challenge the said larger operators, they are advocating a framework that allows coexistence of both the big and small players within the connectivity market.

Ibisi cautioned that dominant operators could push smaller ISPs out of the Internet connectivity market with their apparently superior financial muscle and wider coverage across the West African country.

In respect of broader industry challenges, Kehinde Joda, Head of Regulatory and Public Relations at FibreOne, was also quoted to have said that the ISP sub-sector of the Internet connectivity market faces other issues beyond competition.

Joda noted that several service providers still rely on old business models that focused solely on Internet access, without clear service differentiation or value-added offerings for telecoms consumers.

He equally observed that Broadband infrastructure deployment, particularly fibre networks, remains capital-intensive in the Nigerian digital environment as of now.

It is also noted that competition in the Broadband market has shifted with the growing presence of satellite-based ISPs, which now offer wider coverage and faster deployment than terrestrial networks.

For instance, report indicated that Starlink, which was licensed, and entered the Nigerian market 2023, has become the second-largest ISP by customer numbers, drawing subscribers from local providers.

They further argued that the licensing of Amazon Kuiper marked the entry of another global player into Nigeria’s low-earth-orbit satellite Broadband space, increasing competition with Starlink.

According to NCC data for the Second Quarter (Q2) of 2025, the ISP market is increasingly concentrated. Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne accounted for about 65 percent of active ISP customers, with a combined 203,000 subscribers out of 313,713 active connections nationwide.

Meanwhile, as the NCC issued new licences to more industry operators, and satellite operators expand their presence, competition in Nigeria’s Broadband market is expected to increase further in the country’s entire digital ecosystem.

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