For millions of Nigerians, the telecom experience in 2026 has been uncomfortable.
Data costs more. Household budgets remain squeezed. Subscribers have complained about slow internet, dropped calls, unstable connections, and data disappearing faster than expected. Regulators have gone as far as ordering telecom operators to compensate customers affected by poor service.
Yet MTN Nigeria has just reported one of the strongest half-year performances in its history.
The telecom company made ₦707.5 billion in profit after tax in the six months to June 2026, a 70.6% increase from ₦414.9 billion a year earlier. Service revenue jumped 25.9% to almost ₦3 trillion, while EBITDA rose 39.2% to ₦1.67 trillion. MTN also added 4.9 million subscribers, taking its customer base to 92.2 million.
The numbers present an apparent contradiction.
Why are Nigerians spending more with MTN at a time when living costs remain high, and dissatisfaction with telecom service has become serious enough to trigger regulatory compensation?
The answer says something important about the changing economics of connectivity in Nigeria.
For many households and businesses, mobile internet is becoming increasingly difficult to cut from the monthly budget, even when the service frustrates them.
Are Nigerians Complaining About MTN but Still Using More Data?
That appears to be what the numbers show.
MTN’s active data users increased by 2.5 million during the first half of 2026 to 55.7 million. More importantly, existing subscribers also consumed more.
Network data traffic increased 25.8%, while average monthly usage per subscriber rose 15.2% to 14.8GB. Data revenue consequently jumped 38.4% to ₦1.7 trillion, making it MTN’s biggest revenue category.
Those figures matter because customer complaints have not disappeared.
In May, the Nigerian Communications Commission acknowledged public frustration over dropped calls, slow internet speeds, unstable data connections and disruptions across parts of the country. The regulator said operators were investing heavily to improve network quality.
MTN itself began compensating some subscribers affected by quality-of-service failures after an NCC directive covering disruptions recorded between November 2025 and January 2026.
By June, the NCC said more than 75 million telecom subscribers across operators had received compensation following its quality-of-service intervention.
So the complaint problem is not merely social-media noise.
But neither has it stopped Nigerians from consuming more data.
That is the business paradox behind MTN’s results.
Why Has Poor Service Not Killed Demand?
Because connectivity is increasingly essential.
A subscriber unhappy with a streaming service can cancel it. Cutting mobile connectivity is considerably harder.
Nigerians use mobile networks for banking, messaging, business, social media, education, entertainment, ride-hailing and increasingly basic workplace functions.
For traders, freelancers, small businesses and digital workers, data can function more like an operating expense than entertainment spending.
That gives telecom companies an unusual position during difficult economic periods.
Consumers may reduce restaurant visits, postpone buying appliances or switch to cheaper brands, but abandoning internet access altogether can carry a much higher cost.
MTN’s own results describe demand as resilient. Service revenue grew 25.9%, which the company said was 10.4 percentage points above average inflation during the first half.
That resilience is especially striking because household prices are still rising.
Nigeria’s headline inflation stood at 15.91% in June, while food inflation reached 17.52%. Falling inflation does not mean prices are falling; it means they are rising at a slower rate.
MTN is therefore growing in a market where consumers remain under financial pressure.
Did Higher Data Prices Help MTN More Than Subscriber Growth?
They clearly played a major role.
Telecom operators received approval for tariff adjustments in 2025 after arguing that years of inflation, naira depreciation and rising energy costs had made existing pricing unsustainable.
Those increases improved revenue per subscriber and gave operators more room to finance network investment.
But MTN’s 2026 figures cannot be explained by pricing alone.
Its subscriber base grew 8.9% year on year to 92.2 million, while active data subscribers increased 9.3%. Data traffic grew faster than either measure, at 25.8%.
That tells us users were not simply paying more for the same consumption.
They were consuming more.
MTN’s data revenue rose ₦472.4 billion from ₦1.23 trillion in H1 2025 to ₦1.70 trillion in H1 2026.
Voice revenue, by comparison, increased only 12% to ₦993.5 billion.
The centre of MTN’s business has shifted.
It is no longer primarily a company earning money from Nigerians making phone calls. It is increasingly an infrastructure company monetising Nigeria’s dependence on mobile internet.
But Should ₦707.5bn Profit Raise Questions About Service Quality?
Absolutely.
Strong profitability and poor service are not contradictory from an accounting perspective. But they create a legitimate consumer question:
If MTN can generate ₦707.5 billion in six months, should customers expect significantly better network performance?
MTN appears to recognise the tension.
At a June stakeholder forum held amid complaints about network disruptions and data consumption, the company said it planned about ₦1 trillion in network investment during 2026, while executives acknowledged that no telecom operator could guarantee perfect network quality.
For H1 alone, MTN reported ₦620.5 billion in capital expenditure, excluding leases, directed towards network capacity, coverage and home broadband expansion.
That means a meaningful portion of the cash generated by higher tariffs and rising data consumption is being reinvested into infrastructure.
But consumers will judge the investment differently from investors.
Shareholders see capex figures, EBITDA margins and free cash flow.
Subscribers experience whether WhatsApp messages send, calls connect and videos load when needed.
Until network investment produces consistently noticeable improvements, strong profits could sharpen rather than reduce customer frustration.
Can MTN Keep Growing if Customers Remain Frustrated?
That is where the company’s success could become its risk.
MTN has demonstrated that demand for connectivity is remarkably resilient.
It has not demonstrated that customer tolerance is unlimited.
Persistent service failures can eventually affect brand loyalty, particularly if competitors improve coverage or broadband alternatives become more accessible.
MTN’s management is already watching affordability. In its H1 outlook, the company listed inflation, energy costs, exchange rates, pricing behaviour and customer affordability among the factors it will monitor in the second half.
There is another warning inside the earnings report.
Service revenue increased 25.9% across the first half, but growth slowed to 13.2% in the second quarter as earlier tariff increases became fully reflected in the comparative numbers.
That means the easy part of the tariff-driven growth story may be fading.
Future expansion will depend increasingly on Nigerians using more data, more smartphones connecting to the network, home broadband expanding and MTN improving customer experience enough to retain those users.
MTN’s Biggest Advantage May Be That Nigerians Cannot Easily Disconnect
That may be the clearest explanation for the paradox.
Nigeria’s economy can be difficult for households while telecom companies remain profitable because connectivity has become deeply embedded in everyday economic life.
Consumers can dislike higher data prices.
They can complain about dropped calls.
They can question why bundles seem to disappear quickly.
And still buy another bundle tomorrow because being offline carries its own cost.
MTN added 4.9 million customers in six months while those debates were unfolding.
That is not proof that Nigerians are satisfied with the service.
It is evidence that mobile connectivity has become difficult to live without.
For MTN, that dependence is translating into record cash generation.
For its customers, the harder question is whether the company’s growing profits and rising network investment will eventually translate into a service experience that feels worth what they are paying.