MTN Roaming Deal Rescues 9mobile from the Edge

In 2017, after a financial storm forced Etisalat to rebrand as 9mobile, the company’s future looked uncertain. Once a rising player in Nigeria’s fast-paced telecom sector, 9mobile saw its market share dwindle, its subscriber base shrink, and its voice fade in a fiercely competitive market dominated by MTN, Airtel, and Glo.

Now, nearly a decade later, a deal approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) may finally offer a long-overdue lifeline.

Starting from this month, June 2025, 9mobile will begin a national roaming partnership with MTN Nigeria, allowing it to piggyback on MTN’s extensive infrastructure to deliver voice, SMS, and data services in areas where 9mobile’s coverage is weak or non-existent.

“We just want to compete again,” a senior staffer at 9mobile who requested anonymity told Technext. “This deal gives us the room to breathe, to rebuild trust with our customers, and to think about growth again—not just survival.”

From Isolation to Access

The implications are immediate. For subscribers in underserved towns and urban black spots, the agreement means they’ll finally experience reliable service, something 9mobile has struggled to guarantee since losing access to Etisalat’s deep pockets and international reach. Under the new roaming pact, those same customers will connect via MTN’s robust towers and infrastructure.

For MTN, it’s not just altruism. The telecom giant gains access to 9mobile’s largely idle but valuable spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2100 MHz bands, resources that can help ease network congestion in cities like Lagos and Abuja.

“This is a clever workaround,” said telecom analyst. “Instead of going through the long, expensive process of acquiring new spectrum through auctions, MTN gets what it needs, instantly and at a lower cost.”

A Glimpse of Renewal

9mobile currently lags far behind its rivals, with fewer than 13 million subscribers. But industry insiders say the new agreement could reset the brand’s trajectory. With a stronger signal and fewer dropped calls, the telco can finally focus on innovation, possibly in digital finance, rural expansion, or new product rollouts aimed at younger, tech-savvy users.

“People underestimate what bad network coverage does to a brand,” the staffer added. “When you lose people in Abuja or Ibadan because they can’t make a call, they won’t give you a second chance. This roaming pact gives us that second chance.”

NCC’s Quiet Revolution

The approval from NCC isn’t just regulatory rubber-stamping. It’s part of a broader shift in policy thinking, away from expensive, wasteful duplication of infrastructure and toward a smarter, more collaborative telecom landscape.

In a statement, a senior NCC official noted the deal fits within the commission’s long-standing goal to “promote infrastructure sharing, improve service quality, and encourage sustainable competition.”

For 9mobile, it’s more than a strategy, it’s survival.

And for the Nigerian telecom industry, it could mark the beginning of a less adversarial, more symbiotic era where even underdogs get a fighting chance.

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