Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator said in September that fibre cuts had contributed to a sharp rise in network disruptions in June, even as mobile operators installed thousands of additional sites to improve coverage and capacity.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said in a communiqué dated September 9, 2026, that operators had deployed 8,526 of 12,179 promised sites. Its board called for stronger protection of the cables that connect telecommunications infrastructure.
The effects extend from repair work and network-management costs for companies to interrupted calls, slower internet and disrupted transactions for customers. The break may be underground, far from the person trying to make a call.
Okay News reports that the NCC recorded more than 5,000 fibre-cut incidents caused by road construction, excavation and related civil works in the first six months of 2026. That figure covers those causes, rather than every fibre cut nationwide.
“To the nation, it can mean failed calls, stalled payments, interrupted services and missed opportunities,” Aminu Maida, the NCC’s executive vice-chairman and chief executive officer, said at an August 11 workshop in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. His remarks appeared in a statement signed by the commission’s director of public affairs, Nnenna Ukoha.
Why A Buried Cable Can Interrupt A Mobile Call
A mobile phone’s wireless connection is only part of the route a call or data session travels. Telecommunications equipment supplier Ericsson explains that fibre or microwave links connect radio-access equipment to the network’s core. These transport links include backhaul, which carries traffic beyond the local radio equipment.
That means damage to a fibre link can interrupt a mobile service even though no cable connects the customer’s handset to the mast. The NCC’s consumer guidance says fibre damage can cause dropped calls and slower mobile data, as well as outages on fixed connections.
Operators may divert traffic onto backup routes. Service can continue, but the NCC says browsing speeds may fall. Businesses depending on cloud software, video meetings or electronic transactions can then face downtime, while repeated interruptions can weaken customers’ trust in their provider.
The cause also matters. Roadworks are a major source of accidental damage, but the commission’s guidance also identifies vandalism, severe weather, ageing infrastructure and maintenance errors. Describing every cut as deliberate sabotage would obscure those differences.
What Recent Outage Records Show
The NCC’s public outage portal listed four fibre-cut records for MTN Nigeria on September 26, 2026: two affecting Benue State in central Nigeria, one affecting Cross River State in the south, and one covering Kano and Katsina states in the north. The records identified voice, text messaging and data services as affected.
A separate Cross River incident, listed under the operator label 9Mobile, also affected services using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), the short-code system commonly used for mobile transactions.
The resolution update described faults linked to fence digging, farming damage to a buried joint and a broken fibre core. Repair work included inserting 100 metres of cable with two joints and re-splicing a damaged core.
These are examples from a major-outage reporting system. They cannot be treated as a count of every cable damaged across Nigeria.
The Work And Money Behind Restoration
Repairing a fibre fault requires crews to find the damage, gain safe access and reconnect the cable with specialised equipment, MTN says in its customer guidance. An announcement that engineers have been deployed therefore does not establish when normal service will return.
MTN’s 2025 annual report put persistent fibre cuts at an average of 25 incidents a day that year. The company said it expanded alternative fibre routes and strengthened its response to outages.
In its assessment of network risks, MTN grouped fibre cuts with congestion, infrastructure constraints, theft and vandalism. It said these pressures increased the need for reinvestment, reduced service consistency and heightened regulatory exposure when performance fell below required service-quality standards. Its assessment did not isolate the financial effect of fibre cuts from those other problems.
Road projects can also require operators to move existing cables. The GSMA, an international mobile-industry association, documented the scale of that work in its 2024 report on Nigeria’s digital economy.
It said MTN was required to relocate 1,069 kilometres of fibre in its 2022 financial year, with a budget of ₦4.4 billion, or 4.4 billion naira, and 1,433 kilometres in 2023, with a budget of ₦6.7 billion. The report described relocation budgets rather than repair expenditure; it did not give a current industry-wide loss estimate.
The commercial effects also continue after technicians leave. The NCC’s consumer guidance identifies customer churn, when subscribers move to another provider, as a risk from prolonged or repeated interruptions. Business downtime also imposes costs outside an operator’s repair bill.
Faster Recovery Depends On Backup Capacity
Operators can reduce the interruption by changing how traffic moves through their networks. Telecommunications group Airtel Africa said in its 2025 annual report that its Nigerian business introduced automated routing technology during the financial year ended March 31, 2025, to respond to fibre damage.
The company said the technology reduced average network recovery time from 30 minutes to 30 seconds by rerouting traffic, while easing congestion elsewhere on the network. It reported Nigerian network availability of 98.8% that year, attributing the result to this and other measures.
The recovery figure describes restoring traffic through another route. It does not mean crews repaired a severed cable in 30 seconds. The distinction explains why a customer’s service may return while physical restoration work continues.
In its 2026 annual report, Airtel Africa again identified damage to fibre and inadequate backup arrangements among risks to service quality. Its group-wide safeguards include recovery facilities in different locations and regular tests of plans for switching traffic when systems fail.
Backup design also involves different transmission options. Ericsson says microwave links are used as a backup where roadworks and fibre cuts pose a risk.
Protecting Cables And Informing Customers
Nigeria’s Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure Order, 2024, dated June 24, explicitly covers optic-fibre networks, cables, ducts and associated equipment. It assigns the Office of the National Security Adviser responsibilities for a protection plan and coordination with relevant stakeholders.
Practical coordination remains part of the regulatory response. In August 2026, the NCC said a standing committee on fibre protection had been expanded to include the national security adviser’s office. The workshop was expected to produce a framework for protecting cables during road construction and excavation. That announcement did not establish that the proposed framework had already been implemented nationwide.
Customers are also entitled to clearer information about major interruptions. In a directive announced on May 25, 2025, the NCC required operators to communicate the cause, affected areas and expected restoration time of major outages. Planned outages require one week’s advance notice.
The directive also provides for proportional compensation, including an extension of service validity where applicable under consumer regulations, when a major outage lasts more than 24 hours.
