Telecom operators to Upgrade 12,000 Network Sites in 2026, NCC says

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed that telecommunications operators have committed to upgrading 12,000 network sites across the country in 2026 as part of efforts to improve service quality and expand network coverage.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Aminu Maida, made this known during a media chat in Lagos on Thursday, urging subscribers to be patient as ongoing investments begin to translate into better service delivery.

According to Maida, telecom operators upgraded just over 3,000 sites for coverage and capacity expansion in 2025, but have significantly increased their investment plans this year.

He revealed that about 2,800 sites have already been upgraded in 2026, indicating that operators are ahead of last year’s pace of deployment.

“We are already way ahead of what we did last year,” Maida said.

The NCC boss also disclosed that operators have sustained their investment commitments, with one telecommunications company alone pledging more than $1 billion in capital expenditure this year to fund network expansion and improve service quality.

“We reported last year that we were over a billion. This year, one of them has already committed over a billion,” he said.

On spectrum management, Maida said the Commission had implemented several spectrum trading initiatives to improve network capacity and enhance service delivery.

He explained that spectrum functions as the “highway” through which telecommunications traffic flows, noting that wider spectrum allocations enable operators to deliver faster and more reliable services.

According to him, the NCC made 100MHz of previously underutilised spectrum available through its secondary market framework. The spectrum, previously held by operators including NATCOM and T2 Mobile, was redistributed among the country’s three largest mobile network operators.

He added that the Commission also released a significant portion of its own 50MHz spectrum holdings to further strengthen network capacity.

“This was what enabled some of the site upgrades that I was referring to, so that the operators can have wider highways and better quality highways,” Maida said.

He noted that lower-frequency spectrum would also help extend telecommunications services to underserved rural communities because of its wider coverage capabilities.

On consumer protection, the NCC chief announced that the Commission’s directive requiring compensation for subscribers affected by poor service would take immediate effect.

He said the measure is intended to ensure that customers receive compensation whenever service failures occur.

“The philosophy here was that it lets the people who are suffering get something back,” he stated.

Maida recalled that following the NCC’s approval of a 50 per cent tariff adjustment for telecom operators in 2025, the industry attracted more than $1 billion in infrastructure investments, helping to reverse years of underinvestment that had constrained network expansion and affected service quality.

According to him, the revised pricing framework has improved operators’ ability to invest in infrastructure after years of operating under tariffs that failed to reflect rising inflation and foreign exchange costs. He noted that the new investments are expected to significantly improve network performance and customer experience across the country.