By FUNMILOLA GBOTEKU

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says Nigeria’s major highways and intercity roads enjoy near-universal mobile coverage, with only about 0.1 per cent of surveyed routes recording complete service outages.

Mr Edoyemi Ogoh, Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity at the NCC, disclosed this on Wednesday during the virtual presentation of the Commission’s Fourth Quarter 2025 Industry Network Performance Report.

Ogoh said that the results reflected steady progress in nationwide mobile deployment across trunk, primary and secondary roads, which formed the backbone of connectivity for economic and social activities.

He said environmental and terrain-related factors still affected signal quality and consistency, particularly in rural, border and hard-to-reach locations.

“Our highways are largely covered, but natural obstacles such as hills, forests and difficult terrain continue to degrade signal quality in certain areas,” Ogoh said.

He said the NCC was prioritising low-band spectrum deployment, including sub-1 GHz frequencies such as 700 MHz, with discussions ongoing around 600 MHz, to improve penetration and extend coverage with fewer base stations.

Ogoh said this approach aligned with the Draft Spectrum Roadmap for the Communications Sector 2025–2030, which supports rural broadband expansion, 4G densification and 5G services in major urban centres.

He added that broadband penetration surpassed 50 per cent in 2025, while median 4G speeds improved following spectrum optimisation and spectrum trading arrangements between MTN and T2.

Ogoh noted that although mobile licences carried nationwide rollout obligations, operators often prioritised densely populated areas due to economic considerations.

To complement terrestrial networks, he said the Commission introduced the Aeronautical Station Emission framework to license broadband services on trains, buses, maritime vessels and aircraft.

Providing further insight into how the commission evaluates real-world performance, Mr Umar Abdullahi, Special Adviser to the Executive Vice Chairman on Technical Matters, explained the assessment methodology.

Abdullahi said the NCC combined crowdsourced network measurements from platforms such as Ookla with geospatial road maps to analyse user experience across Nigeria’s road network.

He said the analysis showed strong signals along major economic corridors linking Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, while weaker connectivity persisted in border towns and insecure rural areas.

“These gaps are not about the absence of infrastructure but about propagation challenges caused by terrain and vegetation,” Abdullahi said.

He explained that higher-frequency bands struggled to overcome natural barriers, causing service degradation and fallback from 4G to older networks in difficult environments.

Abdullahi said the report identified about 326 kilometres of primary roads with zero-service zones, a small fraction of Nigeria’s more than 290,000-kilometre road network.

He added that trunk roads with lower population density recorded lower quality compliance, while secondary roads serving communities generally performed better.

Responding to stakeholder concerns over fluctuations along Benin corridors and in Niger, Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states, Abdullahi said the NCC engaged operators using detailed maps and analytics for targeted solutions.

He said the commission also encouraged alternative infrastructure approaches, including microwave backhaul, in remote locations where fibre deployment was either difficult or commercially unattractive. (NAN)

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