Data consumption in Nigeria hits all-time high in July despite decline in subscriptions 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that data consumption in the country hit an all-time high of 1.1 million terabytes in July 2025.

According to the latest industry statistics released by the Commission, the first milestone was hit in May, when 1.04 million terabytes was used.

The increase in consumption comes as more Nigerians move to higher generation of networks, 4G and 5G, leading to higher speed.

NCC’s data shows that the percentage of Nigerian internet users on 4G increased to 50.85% in July, while 5G is also steadily coming up at 3.17%. Conversely, 3G usage is declining in the country as only 7.38% of connections were on 3G as of July.

Internet subscriptions decline 

Despite the increase in data consumption, telecom operators continue to see decline in the number of active internet subscriptions as Nigerians adjust to the recent 50% price increment implemented by all telecom operators in the country.

• Total internet subscriptions across mobile, fixed wired, ISP, and VoIP networks declined to 138.7 million from 141.1 million recorded in June.
• While the mobile network operators (MNOs) continue to dominate the internet service market, they accounted for the majority of the internet subscription loss in the month.
• According to the NCC statistics, internet subscriptions on MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and T2 (9mobile) declined from 140.6 million in June to 138.2 million in July.

Active mobile subscriptions decline 

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.

• The telco’s active subscriptions plunged to 56.5 million in July from 58.9 million it recorded in June.
• MTN also lost 106,345 subscriptions in the month, which brought its database to 89.1 million in July, while Globacom’s subscriptions declined by 143,701 to 20.7 million.
• MTN remained the dominant player in the market with 52.70% of the market share, while Airtel maintained the second position with 33.42% share.
• Globacom’s market share stood at 12.26%, while 9mobile’s maintained its distant 4th position despite the gains recorded in the month with 1.61% of the market share.

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.

What you should know 

The surge in data consumption, while boosting revenue on the telecom operator, is also putting more pressure on them to invest more in expanding their infrastructure capacity to meet the growing demand.

• Acknowledging this recently, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, said there has been exponential explosion of data usage across Nigerian cities, particularly Lagos, as rapid urbanisation, digitisation, and mobile-first lifestyles continue to drive bandwidth consumption at unprecedented rates.

To meet this demand, he said the company is investing heavily to accelerate the deployment of 5G in the country.