Telecom subscribers in Nigeria have continued to specific frustration over the standard of service being acquired from community operators, months after the 50% tariff hike that was anticipated to result in improved service supply.
From incessant community outages to gradual web velocity, complaints throughout MTN, Airtel, Globacom and T2 are mounting by the day.
This was despite the multimillion-dollar investments in community capability introduced by the telecom operators after the value increment to spice up service high quality.
The Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) had additionally assured subscribers that one of many situations given to the operators earlier than it authorised the 50% value hike in January was that they’ve to enhance their service high quality.
Nevertheless, the operators have pinned a lot of the blame on recurring fibre-optic cable cuts and infrastructure disruptions, saying these are undermining efforts to increase community capability.
Subscribers’ frustration
Nigerians have been venting their anger over the worsening service high quality. From poor sign energy to intermittent outages, many say it’s changing into insufferable to remain linked regardless of larger prices.
“This isn’t a life I swear. There is no such thing as a service in my sitting room or kitchen, solely in my room, and generally no community in any respect. You may’t even benefit from the knowledge you employ your hard-earned cash to purchase. It’s loopy,” Tolu, a Lagos resident, lamented.
One other subscriber, recognized as John, mentioned he needed to swap to 3 completely different networks final Sunday to have the ability to switch cash on his cellular app.
“If I didn’t have as much as three completely different strains with me that day, I’d have been in a severe mess. The frequency and size of community downtimes on this nation are actually irritating!! Each single day, sooner or later, the community simply disappears,” he bemoaned.
For Pelumi Ajayi, one other Lagos resident, her frustration stemmed from her 5G router delivering 3G service.
“It’s been virtually two months since I purchased my 5G router, and all I’ve been getting is poor service. It solely works in the course of the evening, and all I get is 1MBPs and that is purported to be 5G”.
These feedback mirror 1000’s of others from subscribers nationwide, highlighting the rising frustration with telecom operators who, they imagine, have did not match rising prices with improved service high quality.
Telcos blame fibre cuts
In the meantime, telecom operators mentioned the present challenges with service high quality are a results of a rise in fibre cuts and harm to telecom infrastructure throughout the nation.
Whereas lamenting billions of Naira being spent yearly on repairs of broken cables, the operators mentioned they’re additionally shedding cash to poor community companies.
“It isn’t within the curiosity of any community operator that its service is poor as a result of in case you are unable to make use of the service, then we gained’t be capable of earn a living from you. When the service is nice, you speak extra, you employ extra knowledge, and that’s what provides us income,” an official of one of many telecom operators instructed Nairametrics on situation of anonymity.
He famous that rampant circumstances of fibre cuts have been draining the purse of the telecom operators as they hold spending on repairs whereas shedding income in the course of the interval of the service outage in affected areas.
Highlighting the severity of the assaults on telecom infrastructure, Senior Supervisor at Broadbased Communications, Jude Ighomena, revealed that telecom operators misplaced an estimated N5 billion in 2024 attributable to infrastructure harm in Lagos State alone.
- In keeping with him, over 2,500 fibre cuts had been recorded within the state final yr, inflicting widespread service disruptions and monetary losses.
- He famous that Lagos’ busiest industrial districts—Ikeja, Lekki, and Victoria Island—are probably the most affected, with street development and personal developments incessantly damaging underground fibre cables.
- In the meantime, Alimosho and the Mainland areas are mentioned to have turn into hotspots for fibre cable theft and vandalism.
NCC apprehensive
The telecom regulator, NCC, had additionally not too long ago expressed fear over the rising circumstances of injury to telecommunications infrastructure nationwide, revealing that MTN, Airtel, 9mobile, and different telecom operators now document a median of 1,100 fibre cuts each week.
Talking at a discussion board in Lagos, the Government Vice Chairman of the Fee, Dr. Aminu Maida, disclosed that the operators additionally document a median of 545 entry denial circumstances and 99 theft incidents weekly, all of which threaten service supply, operational stability, and nationwide safety.
“These usually are not simply numbers. They replicate a nationwide emergency. Each fibre reduce, each theft, and each case of sabotage contributes to dropped calls, failed transactions, interrupted emergency companies, and financial losses,” Maida warned.
- The NCC boss harassed that the persistent harm to telecom infrastructure has turn into a serious impediment to Nigeria’s digital transformation targets.
- In keeping with him, with the economic system more and more reliant on resilient digital networks, disruptions brought on by vandalism and neglect are stalling progress.
Operators ramp up investments
Regardless of the present challenges, the telecom operators are doubling down on their investments in infrastructure to enhance their service high quality and meet the rising calls for for knowledge within the nation
Within the first half of 2025, MTN reported that it invested N565.7 billion to speed up the enlargement of its community infrastructure, marking a 288.4% enhance in capital expenditure in comparison with the identical interval final yr.
MTN mentioned the surge in capex, excluding lease funds, was mandatory to satisfy rising knowledge site visitors and enhance service high quality for its over 84 million subscribers.
A breakdown of the investments reveals that MTN deployed 240 new 4G websites, expanded its fiber-to-home community, and started work on a brand new knowledge centre to satisfy rising digital demand.
Equally, Airtel Africa, the mum or dad firm of Airtel Nigeria mentioned it additionally elevated capital expenditure in Nigeria to $39 million within the second quarter of 2025, up 1.7 from $38 million in the identical interval final yr.
Airtel Nigeria in Might this yr, had introduced plans to double its capital funding this yr because it seeks to speed up the deployment of 5G and increase its community protection.
In keeping with the telco, the brand new funding drive will cowl a variety of areas together with essential infrastructure upgrades, rural community enlargement, superior knowledge options, customer expertise enhancements, and community-focused initiatives.
What it is best to know
In August final yr, President Bola Tinubu signed an official gazette designating telecom infrastructure as essential nationwide info infrastructure and making it a prison offence for anybody to wilfully destroy such infrastructure within the nation.
- In keeping with the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economic system, Dr Bosun Tijani, the gazette, ‘Designation and Safety of Essential Nationwide Data Infrastructure Order, 2024’, is a big step that may strengthen and shield investments within the ICT sector.
- Nevertheless, that was not the primary time such a declaration can be made. In June 2020, the quick previous Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Pantami, introduced an analogous motion by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
- Moreover, as a part of measures to handle the difficulty, the Federal Ministry of Works (FMoW) and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economic system (FMoCIDE) shaped a Joint Standing Committee on the Safety of Fibre Optic Cables in February this yr.
- The first mandate of the Committee is to ascertain and preserve efficient communication and coordination channels between the FMoW, FMoCIDE, and the NCC to forestall and decrease harm to fibre optic cables throughout street development and rehabilitation actions.
The influence of the committee has, nevertheless, but to be felt as incidents of fibre cuts proceed each day.
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