MTN Nigeria has strengthened its grip on the country’s fibre internet market, accounting for more than half of Fibre-To-The-x connections after its subscriber base nearly doubled within six months.
Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission for June 2026 showed that MTN had 176,468 FTTx subscribers, representing 55.2 per cent of Nigeria’s 319,735 fibre connections. The figure was up 97.3 per cent from the 89,441 subscribers recorded in January.
Despite MTN’s rapid expansion, fibre remains a small part of how Nigerians access the internet. Brandspur Brand News reports that the country had about 156.4 million mobile internet subscriptions in June, dwarfing the number of connections delivered directly to homes, offices and other buildings through fibre infrastructure.
FTTx represented roughly 0.2 per cent when compared with the combined total of mobile internet and FTTx subscriptions, highlighting Nigeria’s continued dependence on wireless networks for everyday connectivity.
MTN’s closest rival, FibreOne, had 56,486 fibre subscribers in June. ipNX recorded 14,698, SwiftNG had 13,195 and Broadband Communication had 10,761, while Airtel’s fixed broadband operation remained below 5,000 subscribers.
Nigeria’s challenge is not a shortage of international internet capacity. Eight active subsea fibre-optic cable systems land in the country, with combined design capacity estimated at about 370 terabits per second.
The larger constraint is getting that capacity from landing points and major network routes into homes, offices and communities. Building those last-mile connections requires significant investment in metropolitan fibre networks, building access and supporting infrastructure.
Operators also face varying right-of-way charges, regulatory approvals and construction challenges across states, increasing the cost and time required to expand fibre coverage.
MTN enters that race with a significant infrastructure advantage. Its terrestrial fibre network extends more than 43,000 kilometres across Nigeria and connects thousands of base stations.
The telecom operator also invested ₦620.5 billion in capital expenditure during the first half of 2026, excluding leases and right-of-use assets. Including leases under IFRS 16, capital expenditure reached ₦795.6 billion. The investment covers a wider range of infrastructure, including spectrum, network expansion, 5G and terrestrial fibre backhaul, rather than household fibre connections alone.
A nationwide fibre backbone, however, does not automatically translate into fibre access for households. Extending connections from major network infrastructure into individual buildings remains one of the most expensive and complicated stages of broadband deployment.
For Nigeria, the gap presents a major opportunity as demand grows for high-speed connectivity to support streaming, cloud computing, remote work, enterprise applications and artificial intelligence services.
Reducing right-of-way obstacles and streamlining regulatory approvals could accelerate deployment, while greater investment in local fibre manufacturing and network infrastructure could further expand coverage.
MTN’s 55.2 per cent market share therefore reflects both the operator’s commanding early position and the limited size of Nigeria’s fixed broadband industry. With fewer than 320,000 FTTx connections compared with more than 156 million mobile internet subscriptions, the bigger race is not simply for leadership but to make fibre broadband accessible to substantially more Nigerians.
