After nearly two years of steady decline, T2 Mobile—formerly known as 9mobile—has posted its first increase in subscriber numbers.
In July 2025, the telecom operator added 290,601 new users, growing its subscriber base from 2.4 million to 2.7 million. This modest boost raised its market share from 1.4% to 1.6%, according to data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
This gain comes at a time when Nigeria’s overall telecom market is contracting. While T2 recorded growth, major rivals—MTN, Airtel, and Globacom—suffered subscriber losses. Airtel led the downturn with a loss of 2.4 million users, while Globacom and MTN shed 143,701 and 106,345 subscribers, respectively.
The industry’s loss of 2.4 million subscribers in July was the sharpest since February 2025, underscoring the sector’s ongoing struggle to regain growth momentum after tariff hikes introduced in January.
However, some industry players argue that higher tariffs alone do not explain the decline, given the central role of data in essential services such as digital banking. Internet data traffic—a clear indicator of Nigeria’s growing digital appetite—has been climbing steadily since March and reached a record 1.1 billion terabytes in July 2025.
“I think the drop is attributable to the ongoing industry audit,” said one telecom executive who asked not to be named to speak freely. “Operators are continuously delisting numbers that have been inactive for 365 days, in line with the NCC’s guidelines.”
In July 2024, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) launched a sector-wide audit aimed at enhancing transparency and accuracy in subscriber reporting. The exercise scrutinised billing systems and subscriber records after previous data corrections, including the NIN-SIM linkage, revealed widespread over-counting of active lines.
The clean-up resulted in the removal of more than 64 million inactive subscriptions, cutting Nigeria’s active mobile base from 219.01 million to 154.63 million by September 2024. All major operators were affected: MTN’s base fell by 4.5%, Airtel by 15%, while Globacom and 9mobile were hit hardest with declines of 69% and 68%, respectively. In one case, an operator was found to have overstated nearly 40 million “active” numbers that had generated no revenue for over 90 days.
To tighten oversight, the NCC followed up with its 2025 Telecom Identity Risk Management Policy (TIRMP), which set stricter rules for managing inactive lines. Under the policy, any number with no revenue-generating activity—such as calls, SMS, billed USSD, or data usage—for 180 days is classified as inactive. If this inactivity persists for another 180 days, the number becomes eligible for “churning” and may be reassigned after 365 days of total dormancy.
“Please note that if you have not made a revenue-generating event on your mobile number for 365 days, the line can be churned,” the NCC said in a June 2025 post. “However, service providers regularly send a file containing lists of churned numbers to the banks.”
