Nigeria’s average urban internet download speed increased from 19 Mbps in Q3 to 20.5 Mbps in Q4 of 2025. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed this data, which shows a widening digital gap as rural speeds concurrently dropped to 11 Mbps.
This is in line with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) most recent Industry Performance Report.
However, Nigerians living in rural areas saw a decrease in speed, with an average speed of 11Mbps, which was less than the 12.7 Mbps noted in the preceding quarter.
The industry research identifies obstacles in the face of telecom operators’ growing investments and the government’s efforts to overcome connectivity gaps nationwide.
What the commission is saying through the NCC’s Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Edoyemi Ogoh, who presented the report to the media and industry stakeholders during a webinar. He pointed out that although the industry has made great strides, several areas still require improvement.
The 20.5 Mbps urban figure, according to Ogoh, is the median experience across all mobile network providers in the nation.
He did point out that, in comparison to earlier in the year, performance in rural regions has improved.
He further stated that the download speed in rural areas was between 8 and 9 Mbps earlier this year. We’re doing roughly 11 at the end of the year, so there’s a little uptick, but when you compare Q3 to Q4, there was a decrease.
The NCC warned that the broadband performance gap between cities and rural areas is still a significant concern, with improvements heavily favouring urban centres.
He said that operators added over 2,800 new sites over the past year, the majority of which were placed in metropolitan locations to alleviate congestion, and he ascribed the growth in part to network expenditures.
There were also noticeable differences in latency performance between rural and urban locations. According to Ogoh, when operators launch new sites, users typically report improved latency and overall quality in urban areas.
He pointed out that, from an operator’s point of view, MTN, Airtel, and Glo all do rather well when it comes to latency in cities, with MTN being the best.
Provider performance shows that at 15.8 Mbps, MTN had the fastest average rural download speed.
With a median rural speed of 24.9 Mbps, T2mobile (previously 9mobile) became an unexpected leader in some rural sectors.
Globacom’s average urban download speed was 9.5 Mbps, which was lower than other competitors’ rural averages.
Service providers Glo and T2 performed worse in rural areas, whereas MTN and Airtel registered somewhat better latency.
According to Ogoh, the challenge this provides is that when you are in rural areas, you basically have less experience-wise, especially if you’re using video services or uploading large content. Users on certain networks may find it difficult to use interactive platforms and upload videos in rural areas.
Dr Aminu Maida, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, commented on the study, stating that it demonstrated the Commission’s dedication to open, data-driven regulation and the ongoing development of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
According to him, the Commission is actively working with operators to resolve the problems noted, such as coverage gaps for mobile services.
In order to increase coverage and capacity across the country, more than 2,850 additional sites were deployed in 2025 as a consequence of over $1 billion in industry investment.
“These investments are directly responsible for a large portion of the progress shown in today’s reports,” the EVC said.
Infrastructure investments are continuing in earnest, he continued, and the NCC has obtained commitments from operators to surpass its 2025 investment goals in 2026.
Just months after going back to market-driven pricing, the Commission revealed last year that it had already drawn more than $1 billion in new infrastructure investments in 2025.
The EVC claims that following nearly ten years of stable pricing, the policy implemented in January and February 2025 allowed mobile network operators (MNOs) to modify prices by up to fifty percent.
According to Maida, years of underinvestment that hindered network growth and degraded service quality were reversed by the new pricing structure.
He noted that the value chain was previously unbalanced, with MNOs subject to set tariffs while tower companies were able to modify pricing on an annual basis to account for inflation and foreign exchange rates.
The challenges from the 5G rollout show that nearly 50% of Nigerian 5G device owners are unable to get 5G services despite the speed increases because of poor coverage, especially outside of office settings.
In addition to raw speed with the connectivity metrics, the NCC reported that nationwide 5G site load times have decreased to 2-3 seconds, while peak speeds in urban areas like Lagos and Abuja reached 35.52 Mbps.
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