Nigeria’s mobile internet ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly, underpinned by increasing smartphone adoption, rising digital services usage, and expanding mobile network coverage.
A recent nPerf Barometer of mobile internet connections, covering data collected between January 1 and December 31, 2024, offers a detailed snapshot of how mobile connectivity is performing across the country and what it means for consumers, businesses, and investors.
Performance Leaders in Nigeria’s Mobile Internet
MTN establishes itself as leader of mobile Internet in Nigeria for 2025, according to the annual nPerf barometer.
This edition reveals strong competition between three major operators with differentiated service profiles across all performance indicators.
MTN leads the sector with 37 106 nPoints and dominates all measured indicators. With download bitrate of 18.7 Mbps and upload bitrate of 8.7 Mbps, the operator delivers the fastest speeds in the market.
Leader in browsing (35.8%) and video streaming (67.0%), it ensures a smooth experience for data-intensive applications.
ALSO READ: MTN | Airtel | Glo | 9mobile: Which Network Offered Best Mobile Internet Performance in 2024?
Airtel ranks second with 25 614 nPoints and achieves solid performances across key metrics.
Download bitrate reaches 10.6 Mbps and upload bitrate 4.7 Mbps, supporting reliable video calls and content sharing.
The operator demonstrates strong video streaming capabilities (62.5%, 2nd position), providing users with consistent content delivery.
Glo completes the podium with 20 475 nPoints and displays the best latency in the sector (121.8 ms).
The operator ranks second in browsing (29.9%), ensuring efficient web navigation for users.
Nigeria’s fourth operator, T2 (formerly 9mobile) is conspicuously missing in the recent nPerf Barometer of mobile internet connections for Nigeria. Find out why here.
“The Nigerian market demonstrates strong competition with three operators delivering increasingly capable networks for streaming and data-intensive applications”, declares Sébastien de Rosbo, chief executive officer of nPerf.
Market Context and Competitive Dynamics
While MTN held the performance crown in 2025, Airtel and Glo remain important competitive players.
Airtel delivered solid results in specific areas such as browsing and video performance, while Globacom showed steady improvements in overall connectivity metrics.
The nPerf Barometer’s methodology, which draws on millions of real-world tests performed by users across busy and idle hours, gives a statistically robust view of network quality throughout the year.
Telecom Growth and Technology Adoption
These insights arrive at a time when Nigeria’s telecommunications sector is experiencing significant technology shifts:
- 4G remains dominant, serving the bulk of mobile data traffic, while 5G adoption continues to grow, albeit from a low base. As of late 2024, 5G connections were expanding in urban centres like Lagos and Abuja, even though broader adoption is constrained by device and infrastructure costs.
- Broader connectivity trends indicate that mobile broadband accounts for the vast majority of active connections, highlighting how central mobile networks are to Nigeria’s digital participation.
Strategic Implications for Business and Investment
For businesses and investors, the nPerf Barometer results are more than just performance rankings, they highlight structural trends with economic implications:
Quality Drives Digital Adoption: Higher speeds, lower latency, and better streaming experiences are key to unlocking consumer and enterprise demand for services such as e-commerce, cloud computing, fintech applications, telemedicine, and remote work platforms.
Network Investment Signals Long-Term Value: Operators that prioritize infrastructure upgrades, particularly in 4G and 5G expansion, can capture more data traffic, command premium service offerings, and lead in customer retention.
Competitive Differentiation Attracts Capital: As telecoms evolve into platforms supporting broader digital ecosystems, performance leadership can become a driver of market share and investor confidence.
Digital Divide Opportunities: Persistent gaps in coverage or performance (especially outside major cities) signal opportunities for targeted investments in infrastructure sharing, regional network expansion, and digital inclusion initiatives.
Market Outlook
The Nigerian mobile internet market remains dynamic, with expanding user expectations and intensifying competition.
As digital services become more integral to economic activity, the quality of connectivity will be a defining factor in how quickly businesses can adapt, scale, and innovate.
The nPerf Barometer offers a valuable benchmark, one that captures not just speeds and scores, but the evolving realities of connectivity that are shaping Nigeria’s digital economy and investment landscape.
NCC Looking into Telecoms Competition:
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the sector’s chief regulator, has formally engaged global consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct the first comprehensive, independent study of competition in the nation’s telecommunications industry in over a decade.
Mrs Omotayo Mohammed, head, Competition and Tariff at the NCC, in her opening remarks at recent Stakeholders’ Forum on the Study on the Level of Competition in the Nigerian Telecom Industry, noted that the telecom market has evolved significantly over the past years.
According to her, revenue models have shifted, investment patterns have changed, and new forms of market interaction have emerged.
“We are witnessing rapid technological change, evolving consumer expectations and usage patterns, rising investment costs, and heightened competitive pressures.
Concurrently, concerns around barriers to entry, market concentration, sustainability of smaller players, and quality of service continue to warrant careful consideration. These dynamics highlight the importance of continuous validation of competition policy assumptions against current market evidence,” she said.
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