The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved 9mobile to launch nationwide roaming services over MTN’s network. Starting from June 2025, 9mobile subscribers can access voice calls, SMS and mobile data via MTN’s infrastructure in areas with poor or no native 9mobile coverage. The partnership enables 9mobile to improve user experience at lower cost and aligns with the regulator’s policy to boost infrastructure sharing and efficient spectrum utilisation.
Once one of Nigeria’s major mobile operators, 9mobile has faced continuous market share erosion. Reports indicate its market share stood at approximately 1.72% as of April 2025, down from 6.6% when the roaming proposal was first floated in 2020. Building extensive base stations, transmission links and core networks nationwide requires massive capital expenditure for mobile operators seeking national footprint. Nationwide roaming allows smaller carriers to leverage existing networks of larger operators and accelerate coverage expansion.
The agreement carries strategic benefits for MTN as well. Under reciprocal network access terms, MTN gains rights to utilise part of 9mobile’s idle spectrum across the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands. Additional spectrum can expand network capacity, ease local congestion and enhance voice and data quality. For MTN, which serves more than 84 million subscribers, extra spectrum supports surging data demand.
NCC has not released full technical and commercial terms of the deal. Nevertheless, the approval signals that Nigeria’s telecom market is increasingly adopting infrastructure sharing, spectrum collaboration and national roaming to cut redundant investment. If implemented smoothly, 9mobile can strengthen coverage and reduce subscriber churn. This model may serve as a benchmark for other resource-constrained operators to improve nationwide service availability while sustaining market competition.
