The Nigerian Communications Commission has blamed the poor telecom service quality in Lagos, Abuja, and other major cities on insufficient network capacity to handle heavy usage in densely populated areas.
In a report developed in partnership with broadband analytics firm Ookla, the Commission said its research showed that network congestion in urban centres is a major factor behind dropped video calls, streaming interruptions, failed mobile transactions, and slow downloads.
“Overall, network capacity for data services across the country appears good. However, capacity issues have been observed in urban areas across all major operators,” the telecom regulator stated.
“Capacity restrictions are concentrated in urban zones, the impact on rural service is extremely low, reinforcing that this constraint is a localized issue tied to high-density areas.”
The NCC urged telecom operators to make more targeted investments, noting that the best way to ease network congestion in major cities is through a multi-pronged strategy.
This, it said, should focus on two key objectives: the aggressive rollout of 5G technology and the optimization of existing 4G (LTE) capacity to enhance overall user experience.
“While the National Proportion shows a minimal overall impact across the country, the issue is intensified in high-density urban areas.
“This localized congestion leads directly to peak-hour performance degradation, confirming that targeted infrastructure investment in these urban zones is most critical to ensure consistent service quality,” it stated.
However, telecom operators have attributed the poor user experience to frequent fibre cuts and widespread damage to telecom infrastructure across the country.
They noted that these incidents have significantly increased their operational costs, as they are forced to spend heavily on repairs while losing revenue during service disruptions in affected areas.
The NCC recently confirmed this challenge with new data showing that operators experience an average of 1,100 fibre cuts every week.
