NCC Claims 99.9% of Nigerian Highways Now Have Signal, but Commuters Say ‘Not So Fast!’

If you’ve ever been stranded on a Nigerian highway praying for just one bar of signal to make a call, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has some “mostly” good news for you. In a bold new report released this Wednesday, the regulator revealed that total mobile network “blackouts” have been slashed to just 0.1% across the country’s major roads.

After surveying a staggering 300,000 kilometers of highways from primary trunk roads to secondary intercity routes the NCC’s technical team found that nearly every inch of the network has some form of coverage. However, before you start planning to stream a movie on your next trip from Lagos to Abuja, there’s a catch.

The NCC’s Director of Technical Standards, Edoyemi Ogoh, clarified that while your phone might show it’s “connected,” the quality of that connection is a different story. “Our highways are largely covered,” Ogoh explained, “but natural obstacles like hills and forests still act as signal killers, making the connection weak or unstable in many areas.”

Essentially, while you might not hit a “dead zone” where your phone says No Service, you are very likely to hit “zombie zones” where you have signal bars but your WhatsApp messages simply refuse to send.

To fix this frustrating “bars but no data” problem, the NCC isn’t just building more towers. They are turning to the stars. The Commission is currently fast-tracking satellite-to-device technology, which allows standard smartphones to link directly to satellites in space, bypassing the need for ground towers in thick forests or hilly terrains.

The regulator is also forcing telecom giants to use “low-frequency” airwaves that can bend around hills more effectively. This shift is part of a 2026-2030 roadmap aimed at ensuring that “highway coverage” actually means “highway high-speed internet.”

For the skeptical traveler, the NCC has launched an interactive Coverage Map on its portal. Now, before you hit the road, you can check exactly which network performs best on your specific route giving you the power to choose the best SIM for your journey.