This Week In Tech

This week In Tech by Nosa alekhuogie

Nosa Alekhuogie

Nigeria’s ISP Market: Spectranet, Starlink, FibreOne Control 65% of Active Subscribers as Market Shrinks

Nigeria’s Internet Service Provider market is shrinking fast, even as demand for faster broadband rises, and three companies now control nearly two-thirds of all users.

New Q2 2025 data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that Spectranet, Elon Musk’s Starlink, and FibreOne hold a dominant 65% share of all actively connected ISP customers, signalling a structural shakeout that is leaving many smaller providers behind.

A market under pressure

Nigeria’s ISP industry once looked like a vital path to broadband expansion. Today, it is struggling to survive. Out of 224 licensed ISPs, only 133 were active by the second quarter of 2025, meaning nearly 40 per cent have gone dormant.

These active providers serve a total of 313,713 customers. The top three ISPs alone account for 203,160 users, leaving 130 companies to compete for the remaining 110,553 accounts.

Industry analysts say this contraction is no surprise. Mobile Network Operators such as MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile now dominate internet access through their unified licenses. They offer both voice and data services and are aggressively expanding 4G, 5G, and Fibre-to-the-Home coverage.

The difference between the markets is stark. Active ISP customers total 313,713, while mobile internet subscriptions reach 140.6 million. This mismatch highlights how far ISPs have fallen behind.

The big three:

Spectranet holds the lead, but not firmly

Spectranet remains Nigeria’s largest ISP with 99,520 active customers in Q2 2025. But its dominance is weakening.

It reported 103,252 customers in Q1, meaning it lost nearly 4,000 subscribers in three months. The slow but consistent decline has raised concerns that Starlink, the satellite provider that entered Nigeria in 2023, could overtake it.

Spectranet has long marketed itself as a reliable, fibre-based provider. Yet, increasingly, customers are shifting to solutions that offer more flexibility. Complaints include slow speeds in dense areas, customer support delays, and the rising cost of data packages driven by exchange-rate pressures.

Starlink: The Fastest Growing ISP in Nigeria

Starlink reached 66,523 customers in the second quarter of 2025, up from 59,509 in the first quarter, making it the fastest-growing Internet Service Provider in Nigeria for the fourth quarter in a row. Its appeal lies in several key factors. Satellite coverage allows internet access virtually anywhere in the country, providing reliable connectivity even in remote or underserved regions.

The service delivers high speeds that meet both business and personal needs, while installation is straightforward, allowing users to set up quickly without complex infrastructure. For businesses, schools, and other organisations, Starlink reduces downtime and ensures smoother operations.

FibreOne: The quiet third force

FibreOne remains in third place with 37,117 customers in Q2 2025. It recovered from losses in Q1, showing strong demand for home and small-business fibre plans.

FibreOne has struggled with customer perception, especially regarding downtime and response speed. But the company has expanded to more residential estates, offering discounted installations and family streaming bundles.

Home broadband users say FibreOne remains cheaper than Starlink and often faster than Spectranet in estates with modern ducts.

However, its growth is limited by infrastructure costs. FTTH networks require heavy capital investment, and smaller ISPs struggle to scale.

The other players: Still significant, but marginalised

The other ISPs in Nigeria, while still present in the market, are much smaller and operate on the margins compared with the top three providers.

As of the second quarter of 2025, iPNX had 15,636 active customers, Tizeti had 13,996, Broadbased Communications had 9,942, and VDT had 5,325. These companies continue to have a dedicated base of enterprise clients and last-mile users, yet none can approach the scale, reach, or visibility of Spectranet, Starlink, or FibreOne.

Tizeti, for instance, has built its model around solar-powered towers and affordable home broadband services, but rising inflation, currency fluctuations, and increasing diesel prices have hampered its capacity to expand infrastructure rapidly.

Analysts warn that this long tail of smaller ISPs is gradually disappearing, a trend that poses serious risks to Nigeria’s broader ambitions for nationwide broadband connectivity.

Why the ISP market is shrinking

The Nigerian Communications Commission has acknowledged the ongoing decline in the country’s Internet Service Provider sector. Former Executive Vice Chairman Umar Danbatta revealed that by 2022, 568 licensed ISPs had become inactive, highlighting the scale of the industry’s challenges. He noted that Nigeria had granted licenses to 756 companies as of March 2022, yet only 188 remained operational, reflecting both market pressures and structural obstacles.

Danbatta attributed the decline to anti-competitive practices that have persisted within the industry, creating an uneven playing field for smaller operators and emerging providers. Speaking at an event, he outlined several additional factors that continue to constrain ISPs in Nigeria.

These included inadequate spectrum allocation, the high cost of bandwidth, steep charges for right-of-way, and widespread deficiencies in corporate governance. He emphasised that these challenges are compounded by limited investment capacity, debt burdens, and instances of infrastructure vandalism, all of which undermine the ability of indigenous ISPs to compete effectively.

Anti-competitive behaviour remains a major concern, alongside limited spectrum availability and the prohibitive costs of bandwidth and right-of-way access. Weak corporate governance, inadequate investment culture, and accumulated debt have further constrained smaller operators, while vandalism and sabotage of infrastructure have added operational risk. These difficulties have been exacerbated by the aggressive expansion of mobile network operators into fixed-line and home broadband services, a shift that has drawn many enterprise and residential customers away from traditional ISPs.

The launch of 5G services by MTN and Airtel in 2022 has transformed the competitive landscape, with coverage extending to major urban centres. These operators have promoted 5G routers to a wide range of clients, including small and medium-sized businesses, hotels, restaurants, and even banks that had previously relied on traditional ISPs.

While the regulator has taken steps to address these issues, deliberate policies and regulatory interventions are being explored to support smaller players and ensure their sustainability. The Commission is working to develop frameworks, guidelines, and determinations that promote fair competition across the telecommunications sector while ensuring transparency and openness among all stakeholders.

The rise of 5G and FTTH: A direct blow to ISPs

Nigeria’s ISPs initially grew strong by offering fixed wireless broadband, but the rapid expansion of 5G and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) by mobile network operators has shifted the market in favour of the larger players.

MTN now targets enterprise clients with dedicated broadband teams, while Airtel focuses on homes and retail stores with new FTTH plans. Glo and 9mobile also offer bundled internet and voice services, increasing their appeal to both businesses and households.

With deeper financial resources, broader infrastructure, lower per-user costs, and the flexibility to offer multiple services under unified licenses, mobile operators have created a competitive advantage that traditional ISPs struggle to match. As a result, smaller and mid-sized ISPs are finding it increasingly difficult to retain customers and compete effectively in Nigeria’s broadband market.

Why the market still needs ISPs

Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan, designed to connect 70 per cent of the population to high-speed internet by the end of 2025, now faces serious challenges. Broadband penetration, which stood at around 44 per cent in late 2024, is significantly below the target, suggesting the ambitious goal may not be achieved on schedule. Industry experts caution that the ongoing sidelining of indigenous ISPs could further slow the country’s progress toward universal access, leaving key sectors underserved.

Despite the increasing pressures and intense competition from mobile network operators, internet service providers remain a critical component of the digital ecosystem. They provide dedicated connectivity to universities, hospitals, financial institutions, corporate offices, remote work hubs, cloud-based small and medium enterprises, and government networks.

While satellite-based solutions such as Starlink offer coverage advantages, they cannot fully replace the reliability and service quality of enterprise-grade fibre networks. Similarly, mobile networks alone are insufficient to meet the demands of institutions and organisations that require robust, stable, and high-capacity connections. Only a balanced, hybrid model combining both mobile and fixed-line providers can ensure a sustainable, inclusive internet infrastructure in Nigeria.

The broader implications for the market are significant. Nigeria’s ISP sector is experiencing the most substantial restructuring in its history. The top three players, Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne, now account for 65 per cent of all actively connected customers, leaving smaller providers increasingly marginalised or forced to exit the market entirely.

Mobile network operators continue to dominate overall internet access, leaving the ambitious broadband targets at considerable risk. Without timely, targeted policy intervention, the ISP landscape may shrink further even as the nation’s demand for high-quality broadband becomes more urgent.

Sustaining a diverse ISP market is essential not only for achieving national connectivity goals but also for ensuring that critical sectors and communities continue to receive reliable, high-speed internet when they need it the most.