9mobile rebounds with first subscriber progress in 2025 after MTN infrastructure sharing deal 

Telecommunications operator, 9mobile, which not too long ago rebranded as T2, recorded its first acquire of the yr in July because it added 290,601 new subscribers within the month, spurred by its current infrastructure sharing take care of the biggest cellular community operator, MTN.

This got here as the primary month-to-month subscriber acquire in almost a yr for the telecom operator that had skilled regular decline in its customer base over time.

For July, 9mobile additionally emerged as the one operator out of the 4 MNOs that gained subscribers in a month that noticed MTN, Airtel, and Globacom shed weight.

Lively cellular subscriptions decline 

In the meantime, energetic cellular subscriptions within the nation plunged to 169.1 million in July from 171.5 million recorded in June this yr.

The decline was pushed by the losses recorded by the three cellular community operators however most importantly by Airtel, which misplaced 2.4 million subscriptions within the month.

• The telco’s energetic subscriptions plunged to 56.5 million in July from 58.9 million it recorded in June.
• MTN additionally misplaced 106,345 subscriptions within the month, which introduced its database to 89.1 million in July, whereas Globacom’s subscriptions declined by 143,701 to twenty.7 million.
• MTN remained the dominant participant available in the market with 52.70% of the market share, whereas maintained the second place with 33.42% share.
• Globacom’s market share stood at 12.26%, whereas 9mobile’s maintained its distant 4th place regardless of the positive aspects recorded with 1.61% of the market share.

With the decline in actively linked strains recorded by the operators, the nation’s teledensity, which measures the variety of energetic phone connections per 100 inhabitants dwelling inside an space, additionally declined to 78.11% in July from 79.22% recorded in June.

In line with NCC, the teledensity is calculated based mostly on a inhabitants estimate of 216 million.

Backstory 

On July third, 2025, 9mobile and MTN formally introduced a nationwide roaming settlement authorized by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC), which permits prospects of 9mobile will be capable to entry community service anyplace MTN’s community is on the market throughout the nation.

Previous to the deal, 9mobile had suffered enormous subscriber decline as its community deteriorates because of lack of fund to construct infrastructure.

• With the nationwide roaming deal, 9mobile subscribers will now be capable to make calls, ship SMS, and entry knowledge by means of MTN’s infrastructure in areas the place 9mobile’s community doesn’t exist or is unreliable, enabling the telco’s sustainability.
• As a substitute of constructing out its personal infrastructure, which is capital-intensive, 9mobile can now plug instantly into MTN’s far-reaching community.
• The deal marked a game-changing transfer for the 2 telecom operators and an enormous leap towards broader community protection and digital inclusion in Nigeria.