Telecommunications operator, 9mobile, which recently rebranded as T2, recorded its first gain of the year in July as it added 290,601 new subscribers in the month, spurred by its recent infrastructure sharing deal with the largest mobile network operator, MTN.
This came as the first monthly subscriber gain in nearly a year for the telecom operator that had experienced steady decline in its customer base over the years.
For July, 9mobile also emerged as the only operator out of the four MNOs that gained subscribers in a month that saw MTN, Airtel, and Globacom shed weight.
Meanwhile, active mobile subscriptions in the country plunged to 169.1 million in July from 171.5 million recorded in June this year.
The decline was driven by the losses recorded by the three mobile network operators but most significantly by Airtel, which lost 2.4 million subscriptions in the month.
With the decline in actively connected lines recorded by the operators, the country’s teledensity, which measures the number of active telephone connections per 100 inhabitants living within an area, also declined to 78.11% in July from 79.22% recorded in June.
According to NCC, the teledensity is calculated based on a population estimate of 216 million.
On July 3rd, 2025, 9mobile and MTN officially announced a national roaming agreement approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which allows customers of 9mobile will be able to access network service anywhere MTN’s network is available across the country.
Prior to the deal, 9mobile had suffered huge subscriber decline as its network deteriorates due to lack of fund to build infrastructure.