ABUJA, — Nigeria’s telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says it will deploy part of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to support satellite broadband operators, aiming to connect an estimated 23 million Nigerians who remain unconnected, mostly in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
The plan was disclosed during the NCC’s virtual presentation of its Q4 2025 Industry Performance Report, where senior officials said satellite technologies — particularly Low Earth Orbit (LEO) systems — are becoming central to national connectivity goals in locations where terrestrial rollout is constrained by terrain, insecurity, vandalism, and weak business economics.
Regulators said USPF support would be structured as targeted subsidies and incentives tied to coverage in unserved and underserved communities, to prevent satellite broadband from concentrating only in higher-income urban markets. “We encourage satellite operators to focus on areas where market forces alone cannot deliver affordable services,” NCC officials said in the briefing, noting that funding conditions would be linked strictly to verifiable rural coverage outcomes.
The NCC framed the move as a response to the limits of terrestrial expansion. While 4G and 5G deployments are rising, the commission noted that mid-band spectrum used for 5G delivers smaller coverage footprints and significantly higher unit costs outside dense cities, making remote rollout slower and more expensive. Satellite broadband, by contrast, can cover remote communities, highways and difficult terrain with far less ground infrastructure.
The push comes as Nigeria opens its satellite market to more entrants. The NCC has issued a seven-year landing permit to Amazon’s Project Kuiper (Amazon LEO), effective February 28, 2026, and has also licensed additional satellite ISPs as competition expands beyond early movers such as Starlink.
In parallel, the regulator has launched a public consultation on Satellite Direct-to-Device (D2D) services — technology that could allow ordinary mobile phones to connect directly to satellites in coverage “blackspots,” subject to spectrum efficiency, competition safeguards and consumer protection rules.
The USPF, created under the Nigerian Communications Act (2003) and administered by the NCC, is designed to bridge Nigeria’s digital divide by financing connectivity projects in commercially unattractive areas.
Officials also pointed to stepped-up enforcement of Nigeria’s Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) designation for telecom assets, signed in June 2024, as part of broader efforts to reduce outages linked to fibre cuts and vandalism.
