Broadband: NCC’s new ISP licences indicate crucial phase in Nigeria’s digital future

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has moved to deepen the Nigeria’s broadband landscape of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), by highlighting the sector’s national importance even amid mounting organizational pressures.

The regulator is signaling both confidence in long-term demand for connectivity and urgency around sustaining competition in a rapidly evolving digital economy with the licensing of six new Internet Service Providers effective January 1, 2026.

Current data from the NCC’s updated licensing database shows that the total number of licensed ISPs has risen to 231, from 225 in December 2025.

The newly approved operators are Intellvision Technologies Limited, Granet Technologies Limited, Fiber Sonic Limited, Dasol Solution Services Ltd, Boost ISP Limited, and Amazon Kuiper Nigeria Limited. These ISPs joined a market that is already intensely competitive and increasingly shaped by scale, capital strength, and technology.

Although the increase in licensee numbers suggests regulatory openness and market vibrancy, the underlying figures reveal a more complex reality. The ISP sector continues to grapple with shrinking customer bases for many operators and a growing concentration of active subscribers in the hands of a few dominant players. This paradox of more licences, fewer viable competitors has become one of the defining challenges of Nigeria’s broadband ecosystem.

Geography remains a critical fault line as five of the six newly licensed ISPs are headquartered in Lagos, with only one based in Owerri, Imo State, operating outside the country’s major commercial hubs.

This reflects a long-standing pattern in which most ISPs cluster around Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, driven by high infrastructure costs, stronger purchasing power, and limited incentives to expand into rural and underserved areas. As a result, broadband penetration remains uneven, raising concerns about the pace at which Nigeria can achieve inclusive digital growth.

The timing of the new licences is also significant. Traditional ISPs are under sustained pressure from mobile network operators such as MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, whose data services are often cheaper, more accessible, and bundled with voice offerings. At the same time, satellite broadband has emerged as a disruptive force. Starlink’s entry into Nigeria in 2023 reshaped the competitive landscape almost overnight, particularly in areas poorly served by terrestrial infrastructure.

Against this framework, the approval of Amazon Kuiper Nigeria Limited marks a strategic inflection point. The arrival of another global Low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite provider sets the stage for intensified rivalry in space-based broadband, with far-reaching implications for pricing, coverage, and consumer choice.

The NCC has framed the decision as part of Nigeria’s openness to global broadband investments and a response to rising demand for high-speed internet in hard-to-reach communities.

However, industry players have warned that competition is becoming increasingly asymmetric, while smaller ISPs argue that the challenge is less about regulation and more about survival in a market dominated by capital-heavy operators.

“You cannot fight the big player; that is the reality,” said Chidi Ibisi, Executive Director of Business Development at Broadbased Communications Ltd.

Ibisi emphasized that smaller operators risk being edged out not by unfair practices, but by the sheer scale and investment capacity of dominant players, calling instead for a framework that allows different categories of operators to coexist sustainably.

In a similar vein, Kehinde Joda, Head of Regulatory and Public Relations at FibreOne, referred to outdated business models and rising infrastructure costs as major constraints.

Joda contended that many ISPs still rely on selling basic internet access without sufficient differentiation, stressing that innovation must go beyond technology to include customer experience, service design, and operational agility.

He added that the capital-intensive nature of fibre deployment and maintenance continues to limit expansion for smaller firms.

According to the NCC, as of the second quarter of 2025, just three operators—Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne accounted for about 65 per cent of active ISP customers nationwide.

Out of 125 licensed ISPs reviewed at the time, only a fraction reported active connections, with total subscribers standing at 313,713. The figures highlight a market where licensing growth has not translated into broad-based participation or resilience.

As Nigeria drives toward deeper digitalisation across government services, commerce, education, and innovation, the state of its broadband market has become a national economic issue. The NCC’s latest licensing decision underlines a balancing act: encouraging new entrants and global investment while confirming that competition remains meaningful, inclusive, and capable of supporting the country’s long-term digital ambitions.