Last month, Internet and connectivity speed tester Ookla released its market analysis for Nigeria, ranking the country’s fastest mobile internet operators.
The analysis only takes into account top mobile operators in the country, ones which account for 3% or more of total test samples in the market in Q2 2021 – smaller providers are not tested, and thus are not included in the rankings.
All operators are ranked based on their Speed Score, which incorporates a measure of each provider’s download and upload speed to rank network performance (90% of the final Speed Score is attributed to download speed and the remaining 10% to upload speed because online experiences are typically more affected by download speed).
Ookla places the most emphasis on the median speeds as those represent what most mobile internet customers will experience on a day-to-day basis.
Nigerian Mobile Operators Ranked by Fastest Internet Speed:
4. 9mobile
Speed Score – 9.49
9mobile ranked last as the slowest top mobile internet provider in Nigeria. The company also ranked last in terms of connection consistency but ranked first in terms of least latency.
Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (EMTS) rebranded to 9mobile in 2017. The carrier was originally trading as Etisalat Nigeria when it was first founded in 2008. An entity of many names, now 9mobile is amongst the top telecoms in the country and offers a wide variety of products and services to its plus/minus 13-million subscribers.
9mobile offers monthly and daily data bundles amongst others. Monthly data plans start from N2,000 for 4.5GB up to N15,000 for 75GB valid for 30 days.
3. Glo
Speed Score – 10.35
Glo is the number 3 ranked mobile internet provider for Nigerians in terms of internet speed. It has the second least mean latency on its networks but it ranked third in terms of connection consistency.
Globacom Limited is a Nigerian multinational telecom founded in 2003. In 2018, Glo reported that it had over 100 million subscribers, making it the second-largest network operator in the country at the time.
The carrier offers a vast range of products, from mobile data to cloud storage solutions. Monthly data bundles start at 2.9GB for N1,000 up to 138GB for N20,000 valid for 30 days.
2. MTN
Speed Score – 25.78
MTN is the second-fastest mobile internet provider in the country and has the most consistent connection. The company ranked last together with Airtel, having the most latency on its network.
The Nigerian arm of the South African telecom powerhouse, MTN Nigeria offers data for personal, or business use. Monthly mobile data plans start at 1.5GB for N1,000 up to 120GB for N20,000.
1. Airtel
Speed Score – 28.82
The fastest mobile internet provider in the country. Airtel also ranked second in terms of the most consistent network but ranked last together with MTN in terms of latency. Together the two carriers are equal with the most network latency across Nigeria’s top mobile operators.
Airtel Networks Limited is one of the country’s leading telecoms, headquartered in Lagos. Airtel is amongst the top three mobile service providers in terms of subscribers with a customer base of more than 50 million as of December 2019.
Monthly mobile data bundles start at N1,000 for 1.5GB, up to N4,000 for 11GB.
