The assessment, conducted on August 27, 2025, forms part of Enextgen’s National Independent Wireless Broadband Quality Reporting (NIWBQR) initiative, which evaluates 4G LTE and 5G network performance nationwide.

The tests were carried out along key routes in Abuja using Enextgen’s proprietary EMETRICS platform, combining field data from its Enextlog app with post-processing on AWS Cloud.

MTN Dominates Key Data Performance Indicators

According to the report, MTN consistently outperformed competitors across all major Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including throughput, latency, and internet access success rate.

Enextgen noted that MTN’s 5G network achieved an average packet latency of 79 milliseconds and an internet access success rate of 99.79%, the best among all tested networks.

In contrast, 9Mobile’s network experienced access issues during parts of the test, with connectivity dropping around 11:40 a.m., which significantly affected its overall performance metrics.

Voice Quality: MTN and 9Mobile Ahead

Voice call testing, covering 1,000 calls per operator, revealed that MTN and 9Mobile achieved the highest call setup success rates (CSSR) and lowest drop rates, while Airtel recorded the highest blocked call rate.

The report also highlighted that Globacom still relies on Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) for voice calls, an older technology that switches users from 4G to 2G or 3G for calls, often causing slower call setup and interrupted data sessions.

MTN, Airtel, and 9Mobile, however, use Voice over LTE (VoLTE), which delivers faster call connections and higher call quality.

Technical Evaluation and Broader Significance

The report’s measurements focused on signal quality parameters such as Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ).

In these radio-frequency (RF) categories, MTN’s 5G network achieved the strongest results, with average RSRP at -86 dBm, RSRQ at -11 dB, and SINR of 12 dB, signaling a robust and well-optimized deployment.

Enextgen emphasized that such performance data helps operators identify coverage gaps, improve customer experience, and reduce reliance on foreign consultants for network optimization, a challenge that often delays fixes and raises operating costs for Nigerian telecoms.

“Our platform enables local operators to diagnose and address quality issues using indigenous expertise rather than waiting for expensive foreign interventions,” according to the report endorsed by Engr. Aderemi Adeyeye, the President/CEO of Enex Inc.

Enextgen and NIWBQR

Founded in 2016, Enextgen Wireless Limited specializes in mobile broadband quality monitoring and network benchmarking. Its NIWBQR program provides independent public reporting on mobile network quality across Nigeria, focusing on 4G LTE and emerging 5G networks.

Results and live dashboards from the study are publicly available here.

Conclusion

The Abuja benchmarking confirms MTN’s dominance in both 4G and 5G broadband quality, as well as its leadership in voice service reliability.

While Airtel and Glo showed moderate performance, 9Mobile’s connectivity lapses underscored the importance of consistent network maintenance and monitoring.

With 5G adoption expanding and competition intensifying, Enextgen’s independent evaluations provide a data-driven benchmark for improving mobile broadband quality, a crucial factor for Nigeria’s digital economy.

With this, NCC aims to bring a more structured and transparent approach to network quality assessment in an industry that serves millions of subscribers nationwide. 

However, Enextgen Wireless Limited, a telecommunications consultancy, questions whether these KPIs truly reflect the day-to-day experiences of Nigerian mobile users, noting discrepancies between NCC’s data and real-world network performance.

Key Metrics for Mobile Network Quality

The newly released KPIs focus on critical aspects of network functionality, encompassing metrics such as network stability, call quality, and data transmission success rates. The primary KPIs highlighted by the NCC include:

1. ERAB Drop Rate – This measures the retainability of active data sessions, indicating how well the network holds connections during usage. Although this metric is useful for internal evaluations, Enextgen argues it may not translate into an enhanced user experience, as subscribers may not notice minor drops during their usage.
2. RRC Setup Success Rate – A metric for the success of Radio Resource Control (RRC) setups, which is fundamental for initialising communication between devices and network towers. While essential for technical stability, this KPI doesn’t directly address user satisfaction or experience, making it more relevant to network operators than to everyday users.
3. Circuit-Switched Fallback (CSFB) Preparation Success Rate – This KPI measures the effectiveness of voice calls on 4G networks when fallback to 3G is required. However, Enextgen questions its relevance in the current space, where 4G and 5G networks support Voice over LTE (VoLTE), a modern approach that bypasses the need for fallback. A KPI focused on actual call quality might better reflect user experience with voice services.
4. Inter-cell Handoff Success Rate – This assesses the effectiveness of cell-to-cell handoffs, particularly valuable in urban areas where users frequently move between coverage zones. However, Enextgen notes that missing or unregistered handoffs, often due to undefined relationships between neighbouring cells, disrupt connectivity and frustrate users, highlighting an issue not fully captured in the NCC 4G KPIs.

Field Observations Highlighting Performance Gaps

Enextgen Wireless Limited conducted independent assessments in cities like Abuja and Port Harcourt, revealing discrepancies between NCC’s metrics and real-world network performance. 

Their observations reveal that the NCC 4G KPIs may provide a polished picture of network conditions, but they overlook some key issues affecting subscribers.

One recurring issue is packet loss, especially in regions with generally strong radio frequency (RF) coverage. For instance, Enextgen’s analysis identified significant packet loss within MTN’s network around the University of Port Harcourt, as well as in parts of Imo and Abia states. 

Although Lagos and Ibadan reported lower packet loss, the findings question the consistency of 4G quality across the country. 

Such disruptions can lead to slower data speeds, degraded call quality, and interrupted connectivity, impacting the daily digital experiences of subscribers.

Another issue is infrastructure theft and vandalism. The impact of these activities—especially frequent in urban and semi-urban areas—on service quality cannot be understated. 

Cable theft and damage to network infrastructure often result in extended downtimes, directly affecting the quality of service. 

Even with these challenges, the NCC’s KPIs do not reflect the realities of these disruptions, which contribute to the disparities between the official metrics and the subscriber experience.

Bridging the Gap: Toward Customer-Centric KPIs

While Enextgen commends the NCC for initiating the KPI framework, they argue that the indicators do not sufficiently capture the customer experience. 

They suggest adding KPIs that directly assess metrics like data speed, latency, packet loss, and call setup quality. 

These would provide a clearer view of how well mobile networks meet subscriber needs and would enable the NCC to hold Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) accountable for maintaining high-quality service standards.

Moreover, Enextgen emphasises the need for KPIs that address network resilience against vandalism and theft, as well as metrics that reflect the consistency of network availability in underserved areas. 

Incorporating these customer-centric indicators, NCC could align their evaluations with the real-world conditions faced by millions of Nigerian users, increasing transparency and fostering improvements in network quality.

A Call for Further KPI Refinement

The NCC’s release of new 4G KPIs is a foundational step toward standardised monitoring of mobile broadband services in Nigeria. 

However, as Enextgen’s analysis reveals, these metrics are not yet fully aligned with the realities of everyday mobile usage. 

With further refinements, including a focus on metrics that better capture the practical challenges faced by subscribers, these KPIs could become a powerful tool for driving tangible improvements in Nigeria’s mobile network quality.

However, engineers at Enextgen Wireless, an engineering company that focuses on improving user experience in Mobile Broadband Wireless Communications, believe that tampering with a cell site in Maiduguri should not cause a call to drop in Yaba, Lagos or vice-versa.

In fact, they have communicated this to the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

In fact, Enextgen Wireless is of the view that some MNOs are deploying propaganda machine to confuse the subscribers who, in many occasions, do not receive value for money paid.

“Use our platform or come up with similar platform to monitor mobile networks instead of making assumptions or repeating the propaganda of the MNOs”, the company wrote in a report obtained by Techeconomy.

In the report, the engineers showed examples of call drops from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.

“Those from Lagos and Port Harcourt were due to missing handoffs. Sure, these could be due to cable cuts. However, they appear often enough in MTN’s network that they should reflect on the KPIs published for MTN by NCC. They don’t. Those from MTN’s 5G in Abuja occurred at a stationary location”.

“The government should stop blaming the public for vandalism being the primary cause of poor network quality, in lieu of holding MNOs accountable.

“If vandalism is truly the cause of all mobile network quality issues, let the reports published by the NCC reflect the resulting network degradation”, the report reads in part.

Lagos, December 10, 2023

Radio Link Failures, 4G LTE

Enextgen’s estimated Connection Drop Rate is 5.16%

Handoffs, 4G LTE

Enextgen Wireless said the radio link failures occurred where there were no handoffs.

Packet latency, 4G LTE

Enextgen estimated connection setup failure rate is 0%

Port Harcourt, December 10, 2023

Radio Link Failures, 4G LTE

The estimated connection drop rate is 16.45%

Handoffs, 4G LTE

“Where there were no handoffs, Radio Link Failures that occurred can be attributed to the lack of handoffs . Most of the drops or Radio Link Failures in this case were due to lack of handoffs”, the report reads.

Packet latency, 4G LTE

The estimated connection setup failure rate is 0.45%

Abuja, December 10, 2023

Radio Link Failures, 5G NR

“The estimated connection drop rate is 5.22%”.

“All drops occurred at the same location”, the report says.

Handoffs, 5G NR

All expected handoffs occurred. The drops were all at one stationary location

Packet latency, 5G NR

The researchers estimated connection setup failure rate is at 0.07%

In conclusion, Enextgen Wireless had published analysis of a scenario similar to the ones shown in this report earlier.

“We have made presentation to the NCC on how to encourage MNOs to provide higher quality network and be more accountable to the public.

“We have shared evidence contradicting claims by both MTN and Airtel that they had deployed VoLTE nationwide at the time they made the claim.

“We have shared evidence contradicting Airtel’s claim of activating 4G LTE on all of its 3G sites”.

To view information on mobile broadband networks in areas they have covered, visit Enextgen Wireless here or send e-mail to: info@enextwireless.com.

[Featured Image Credit]

To maximize investment opportunities telecom operators must go beyond just building base stations and mounting the mast. The optimal network quality must be delivered to ensure that subscribers get the best quality Internet service.

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has a huge responsibility to continue to ensure that network operator are constantly checked to deliver an optimized network at various locations across the country.

One of the leading Engineering companies that focuses on improving user experience in mobile broadband wireless telecommunication services, Enextgen Wireless Ltd. is at the forefront of providing an interactive network coverage map to check broadband quality across Nigeria.

Emetrics

Enextgen Wireless developed a solution called Emetrics to support mobile network operators like MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9Mobile, and other network providers to offer excellent mobile broadband network services to their subscribers.

Emetrics Service

The service allows mobile subscribers to visualize the quality of LTE Radio Frequency deployment in their locations

“Our solution can be used by the network providers including the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to compare some network key performance indicators (KPI) among the network operators,” Abibat Dunmoye, Director of Engineering, Enextgen Wireless said.

Enextgen Wireless was present at the Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo (NTICE2022) between August 1 and 2, 2022 at Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos to showcase the Emetrics solution to stakeholders.

The NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta; ​the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, and some notable stakeholders were at the Enextgen Wireless booth to see the solution.

According to Abibat, the NCC, ​ network regulators can adopt the solution and use it for benchmarking and comparison among the operators.

”​What the mobile network operators claim to be providing to the user in terms of network quality, are they actually providing it? the NCC and mobile broadband network providers can use Emetrics to perform benchmarking and RF monitoring to know what the consumer experiences are and they can use it to identify areas that need improvements.”

With Emetrics, one can monitor the mobile network signal coverage, and signal quality of an area​ and ​can also be used​ by corporate organizations, device manufacturers, fleet operators, Small/Medium/Large Businesses, government agencies, industry, and market analysts to enhance the quality of their in-building wireless connectivity.

“The LTE coverage tends to be a major source when it comes to internet backhaul, it penetrates some of the rural areas and major urban areas. Due to its wider coverage, a lot of users depend on it for their internet access connectivity, because of that there is a need for continuous monitoring and improvement when required.”

According to Abibat, even in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, there are areas we identified to have network performance issues which we pointed out to the network providers. “We subscribed to a particular network provider at a time for office internet connectivity and the experience was not encouraging.”

Abibat said it was difficult to make conference calls at the time, however, added that with the help of Emetrics, we were able to identify the mobile broadband network provider with the best network coverage quality, and also we were able to improve the network quality with the help of our In-building wireless solution.

Enextgen Wireless has been tracking LTE deployment in Nigeria and bringing to the attention of LTE service providers Radio Frequency deployment issues that lead to sub-optimal offered quality of service.

According to Gbadega Adeyeye, Business Development Director, Enextgen Wireless, in a situation where a network performance issue is being identified on a particular network provider, Enextgen shares reports with the network operators.

In addition, we provide Engineering and technical support services to help organizations or mobile broadband network users to enhance their in-building wireless connectivity experience using our Enextlog data collection devices, Emetrics data visualization platform, Premetrics analytics dashboard, and other components, Gbadega said.