By Vaughan O’Grady
There has been a flurry of announcements from Nigerian operator T2 Mobile in recent weeks. If that name doesn’t seem familiar, which may well be because until August the operator had been known as 9mobile. Here are a few brief updates.
The most recent announcement from T2 Mobile has involved what is describes as a multi-million-dollar partnership with India’s Knot Solutions , a company that helps global business majors leverage digital readiness for all their B2C, B2B, and B2B2X revenue stream needs.
Knot Solutions is to overhaul T2’s business and operations support systems (BSS/OSS), a move the company says is central to its ongoing transformation strategy.
About a week before this, T2 announced that it had entered into a multi-million dollar agreement with technology giant Huawei to upgrade its core network.
While few specific details are available about either deal, they are seen as part of the company’s ongoing recovery plan, based on four phases: stabilisation, modernisation, transformation and growth.
All of these outcomes would certainly be welcome, given that local reports suggests that, as 9mobile, the company had an unfortunate reputation for network unavailability, poor service quality, and limited coverage.
The hoped-for recovery began in 2023 after Lighthouse Telecoms acquired 9mobile. Lighthouse Telecoms is a UK-based firm backed by Thomas Etuh, the chair of Lagos-listed Notore Chemicals Limited. It holds 95.5% of the T2’s shares.
Then came the rebranding, a change of visual identity, a strengthened management team and a national roaming agreement with MTN to address coverage gaps. Local press reports say that in January, the operator announced a four-year, US$3 billion investment plan.
Local press reports have also reminded their readers of the ups and downs of the operator over the years. In 2007 the operator Mubadala Development Company (MDC) selected Etisalat to run its Nigerian mobile operations as Etisalat. This became the fifth licensed GSM operator in Nigeria.
Etisalat apparently boasted a subscriber base of around 22 million and steady growth between 2014 and 2015, though today MTN, Airtel and Globacom remain well ahead of T2.
A complicated series of financial problems over the years, involving loans, credit facilities, the devaluation of the naira and payment defaults, did not help the operator to gain traction in the market. Various owners and potential investors came and went, including Etisalat itself. At one point regulator the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) apparently had to intervene.
Soon after the name change to 9mobile in 2017, Teleology Holdings, founded by Adrian Wood, MTN Nigeria’s former CEO and eleven others attempted to acquire 9mobile but thought better of the idea soon after. Somehow the company has kept going but has lost a lot of subscribers over the years.
Now it appears that as T2 Mobile the operator is gearing up for another attempt to make an impression on the Nigerian market in which it currently holds an estimated share of 1.61% out of 169.3 million subscriptions. The good news is that it gained 290,601 new subscribers in July 2025, and expanded its customer base from 2.4 million to 2.7 million subscribers.
***Culled from developingtelecoms.com
