The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved six new Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to operate in Nigeria, further increasing competition in the broadband market.
The approvals, which take effect from January 1, 2026, were confirmed through the NCC’s updated licensing database. With the new entrants, the total number of licensed ISPs in the country has risen to 231, up from 225 in December 2025, despite declining customer numbers and increasing market concentration.
The newly licensed companies are Intellvision Technologies Limited, Granet Technologies Limited, Fiber Sonic Limited, Dasol Solution Services Ltd, Boost ISP Limited, and Amazon Kuiper Nigeria Limited. Five of the six are based in Lagos, while one operates outside the major commercial centres, from Owerri in Imo State. This distribution highlights the continued concentration of broadband infrastructure in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, driven by deployment costs and demand patterns.
The approvals come at a difficult time for traditional ISPs, many of which are struggling to compete with lower-priced mobile data offerings from MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, as well as satellite broadband services such as Starlink.
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Industry operators have raised concerns that smaller ISPs may struggle to survive without regulatory support, given the scale and investment capacity of dominant players. Chidi Ibisi, Executive Director of Business Development at Broadbased Communications Ltd, said smaller providers are not seeking to challenge larger operators but are calling for a framework that allows coexistence within the market.
He warned that dominant operators could push smaller ISPs out of the market through superior capital strength and nationwide coverage.
Commenting on broader sector challenges, Kehinde Joda, Head of Regulatory and Public Relations at FibreOne, said the ISP sub-sector faces issues beyond competition. According to him, many operators still rely on business models focused solely on internet access, without clear service differentiation or value-added offerings. He added that infrastructure deployment, particularly fibre networks, remains capital-intensive.
Competition in the broadband market has also shifted with the growing presence of satellite-based ISPs, which offer wider coverage and faster deployment than terrestrial networks. Starlink, which entered the Nigerian market in 2023, has become the second-largest ISP by customer numbers, drawing subscribers from local providers.
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The licensing of Amazon Kuiper marks the entry of another global player into Nigeria’s low-earth-orbit satellite broadband space, increasing competition with Starlink. The NCC said the approval reflects Nigeria’s openness to international broadband providers and aims to expand high-speed internet access in underserved areas.
According to NCC data for the second quarter of 2025, the ISP market is increasingly concentrated. Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne accounted for about 65% of active ISP customers, with a combined 203,000 subscribers out of 313,713 active connections nationwide.
As new licences are issued and satellite operators expand their presence, competition in Nigeria’s broadband market is expected to increase further.
