Silent revolution: Users of MTN’s FibreX’s increased by 658% in just one year

When MTN Nigeria decided to rebrand its Fibre Broadband services in April 2025, the plan was clear: reach more homes, provide reliable, high-speed internet for individuals and businesses whose activities require more than a mobile network, and expand into more cities nationwide.

Now, it seems that the telco has struck gold with FibreX, the renewed brand name for its broadband product. 

MTN FibreX grew from 11,794 subscribers in January 2025 to 89,441 in January 2026, a 658% surge that is beyond the numbers. It reflects a service that has gained massive ground within the fixed wired market. 

While wireless technologies (4G/5G network) have revolutionised the Nigerian digital space and driven connections, fibre has been highly tipped to complement the national broadband and push for digital transformation.

And MTN Nigeria’s Chief Broadband Officer (CBO), Egerton Idehen, acknowledged the model. 

In a conversation with Technext, he described how FibreX is MTN’s response to the new realities driving the Nigerian digital space. 

“Wireless will take Nigeria into the future,  but fibre ensures that future is fast, stable, and limitless,” Idehen said, noting that MTN’s goal is to strategically “expand FibreX to more estates, communities, cities, and states across the country.”

His statement revealed how the Nigerian internet space requires complementary inputs from both wired and wireless connections to achieve its set target.

According to the NCC Spectrum Roadmap (2026 to 2030), Nigeria’s 5G-network has been projected to increase from the present 13% to 50% coverage by 2030, while active internet users are expected to reach about 200 million.

And, MTN supports this mission by offering a service that gives gamers, remote workers, creators, streamers and other heavy data users the opportunity to explore the data speeds that provide reliability. By onboarding, they get a high speed of up to 1Gbps

“FibreX is our response to these new realities, delivering the gold standard of home broadband,” Idehen said.

Also Read: MTN, Safaricom in world’s top 10 strongest telecom brands.

Why FibreX may be different

Unlike most internet providers in Nigeria that apply a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) to restrict speed after a certain volume of data is consumed, MTN FibreX plans are unlimited; it allows users to browse, stream, and download without worrying about data caps, FUP, or speed throttling.

Another key factor is the price point: at N25,000 for 50mbs monthly base price point, it offers a convenient alternative to the growing, young middle-class that find mobile data insufficient and the Starlink option too costly.

Recall that Starlink resumed accepting new orders in major Nigerian cities, including Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, after weeks of pause, only for its priority plan. And, it comes with a service cost of N150,000 per month and a hardware cost of up to N2.4 million.

The fact that fibre subscribers grew by nearly 78,000 users between January 2025 and January 2026 indicates growing acceptance by above average and premium data consumers across the country. 

While there is a mixed sentiment about the quality of service across social media, the majority still considers it better.

In fact, between April 2025, when it rebranded, and January 2026, the latest data from NCC, MTN FibreX added nearly 63,000 users, an impressive 421% increase for a service that ranged between 2,000 and 9,000 users in the last two years. 

The highest adoption surge was recorded in September 2025, when users increased by 56.8% (16,640). This is also MTN’s highest monthly increase since it started the service nearly 10 years ago.

Idehen reiterates the company’s goal to connect over 8 million homes by 2028. And this will be done by reaching more locations and cities: “We are expanding our footprint aggressively and bringing FibreX to more cities and states than ever before”.

He highlighted a short-term plan expansion project, which includes:

1. Expand availability to new communities
2. Deepen coverage in existing FibreX locations
3. Ensure seamless, faster activations for new customers. 

He added that long-term, the goal is to help Nigeria achieve its broadband objective: “accelerate Nigeria’s digital progress by strengthening nationwide fibre infrastructure”.

The Federal Government’s broadband connectivity plan, especially the Project Bridge, aims to extend Nigeria’s fibre capacity by 90,000 km, from 35,000 km to 125,000 km.

Also Read: MTN Nigeria records N1.1 trillion profit after tax in 2025, a robust recovery from 2024.

Yet, the challenges persit 

In the company’s year-end earnings report for 31 December 2025, data revenue surged 74.5% YoY to N2.8 trillion, a significant driver of its total revenue. And the broadband service is a significant contributor.

Active data users increased by 11.6% to 53.2 million, data traffic increased by 34.0%, and average usage per subscriber rose by 20% to 13.1GB and 4G population coverage improved by 2.1pp to 84.6%. 

However, the sustainability of these performances is threatened by frequent fibre cuts, infrastructure vandalism, difficulty accessing areas for lay ducts and right-of-way costs. They also stand as constraints to achieving the set targets.

“In many estates, we also encounter pushback or constant demands for community support initiatives,” the MTN CBO said, lamenting the existence of these bottlenecks when reliable connectivity still ends up benefiting the community.

In 2025, MTN Nigeria revealed that it experienced 9,218 cases of fibre cuts with about 211 sites vandalised.

Idehen said authorities across all levels of government must introduce “stronger infrastructure protection laws” to complement the policy that classifies telecom infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII).

To enable faster rollout of fibre optic cables,  a unified, low‑cost right-of-way charge across all states must be implemented. Idehen noted that this is the only way to create an enabling environment for fibre growth.

He mentioned moves by MTN to work closely with local security and community structures, as protection of equipment reduces downtimes and improves service availability. 

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