After a prolonged period of subscriber decline, T2, which was formerly 9mobile, has marked a turnaround with its first monthly gain of the year.
In July, the operator added 290,601 new subscribers, a notable improvement fueled by its recent infrastructure-sharing agreement with MTN.
The renaissance for T2 is directly tied to its three-year national roaming agreement with MTN, approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission earlier in July. This pact allows T2 subscribers to access MTN’s expansive network by covering calls, SMS, and data in regions where T2’s coverage is weak or absent.
In July, Airtel lost approximately 2.4 million subscribers, MTN shed around 106,345, and Globacom fell by 143,701 connections. Amid this downturn, T2 stood out being the only major operator to register subscriber growth in that period.
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As a result of these trends, total active mobile subscriptions dropped from 171.5 million in June to 169.1 million in July, with teledensity representing active lines per 100 people slipping from 79.22 percent to 78.11 percent, based on Nigeria’s estimated population of 216 million.
This resurgence comes after a prolonged downturn for 9mobile. The operator’s active subscriber count plummeted to roughly 3.2 million by January 2025, down from well over 22 million at its peak in 2016.
With access to MTN’s 2G-to-4G networks, T2 can now offer better connectivity, especially in underserved regions, potentially stemming past subscriber losses.
