MTN outperforms Airtel and Glo as Nigeria’s fastest mobile network in 2025

MTN has emerged as Nigeria’s best-performing mobile network in 2025, outperforming Airtel and Globacom across key indicators, including download and upload speeds, latency, browsing, and video streaming, according to a new report by global network testing platform nPerf.

• MTN has been ranked Nigeria’s best-performing mobile network in 2025 by global testing platform nPerf.
• The telco recorded the highest scores in download speed, upload speed, browsing, and video streaming.
• Airtel placed second overall, while Globacom followed with strengths in network latency.
• The findings highlight intensifying competition in Nigeria’s fast-growing digital economy.

The nPerf Barometer of Mobile Internet Connections in Nigeria, which analysed millions of user-initiated tests between January and December 2025, found that MTN recorded the highest overall nPerf Score of 37,106 points, well ahead of Airtel’s 25,614 points and Glo’s 20,475 points.

The report highlights MTN’s dominance in download speeds, where it achieved an average of 18.65 Mbps, nearly double Glo’s 7.46 Mbps and significantly above Airtel’s 10.57 Mbps.

Upload performance followed a similar trend, with MTN delivering 8.70 Mbps, reinforcing its suitability for video conferencing, content creation, and other data-intensive applications increasingly common among Nigerian consumers and businesses.

Latency, a critical metric for real-time services such as online gaming and voice calls, also favoured MTN, which recorded an average of 96.46 milliseconds, compared with Airtel’s 141.12 ms.

Glo, however, stood out in this category, with the lowest latency at 121.81 ms, making it a relatively stable option for delay-sensitive use cases.

In terms of user experience, MTN led in both web browsing performance (35.78%) and YouTube streaming performance (67.02%), indicating smoother page loading and more reliable video playback for subscribers.

nPerf noted that these metrics are increasingly important as Nigerians spend more time streaming content, working remotely, and accessing digital services on mobile networks.

“The Nigerian mobile Internet sector demonstrates strong competition with three operators delivering differentiated service profiles,” nPerf stated, adding that users are benefiting from “increasingly capable networks, particularly for streaming and data-intensive applications.”

MTN’s leadership extended to 4G performance, where it again ranked first across all measured indicators, including download speed, upload speed, browsing, streaming, and latency.

The report shows that even during peak “busy hours” between 6 pm and 11 pm, MTN maintained more consistent performance than its rivals, a critical factor in a country where network congestion remains a persistent challenge.

The study also underlined the reliability of its findings, noting a statistical precision of 1.5% for absolute values and 1 percentage point for percentage-based results, based on a large volume of quality-controlled tests. MTN accounted for 58% of all tests analysed, followed by Airtel at 24% and Glo at 18%.

As Nigeria continues to position itself as one of Africa’s largest digital economies, the report underscores the growing importance of mobile network quality in supporting fintech, media, e-commerce, and remote work.

While competition among operators remains intense, nPerf’s 2025 data suggests that MTN has consolidated a clear lead in delivering the most reliable and high-performing mobile internet experience in the country.