Nigerian fibre broadband provider FiberOne is targeting one million subscribers within five years as demand for reliable high-speed internet grows and operators face rising costs of building and maintaining networks across the country.
The Lagos-based internet service provider currently has more than 40,000 subscribers, according to its Chief Executive Officer, Lanre Ore.
Ore said the company plans to leverage Nigeria’s growing demand for high-speed connectivity to expand its reach across the country.
“Despite the challenges, there are significant gaps to be solved, a young and ambitious population, and enormous room for innovation,” Ore said in a LinkedIn post.
He disclosed that he made the remarks during an interview with PENRESA for an upcoming TIME Africa special on Nigeria.
FiberOne’s target represents more than 20-fold growth from its current customer base and would require a significant expansion of its fibre network, network capacity and customer base beyond its existing markets.
The company has not disclosed the amount of capital required to reach one million subscribers, the length of fibre it plans to deploy or whether it intends to raise external financing for the expansion.
The ambition comes as Nigeria’s fragmented internet service provider market becomes increasingly concentrated.
Active ISP subscriptions stood at 352,006 at the end of 2025, with FiberOne, Starlink and Spectranet accounting for almost 70 per cent of the market, according to data from the Nigerian Communications Commission.
FiberOne had 44,413 subscribers at the time.
The ISP market has also faced pressure from rising bandwidth, energy and right-of-way costs, while mobile operators and satellite providers have intensified competition for households and businesses seeking alternatives to traditional fixed broadband.
FiberOne has previously disclosed plans to expand its fibre footprint beyond its established markets.
In 2025, Ore told The PUNCH that the company planned to take its high-speed fibre services to 15 states, targeting underserved areas as it sought to benefit from growing demand for fixed connectivity.
The company is also expanding its enterprise infrastructure to accommodate businesses requiring large amounts of bandwidth, including artificial intelligence and fintech companies.
“We discussed the growing demand for reliable broadband and how our enterprise infrastructure is evolving to support the next generation of high-bandwidth businesses, including AI and fintech startups that are building the future from Africa,” Ore said.
The enterprise segment could provide fibre operators with an additional source of demand as businesses increasingly depend on cloud computing, digital payments, data-intensive applications and artificial intelligence.
For FiberOne, the enterprise market could also diversify a business traditionally associated with residential fibre-to-the-home services.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest telecom market, has a large but unevenly connected population, leaving room for fixed broadband providers to expand.
Ore said FiberOne sees the country’s young population and connectivity gaps as significant opportunities despite the challenges of operating in the market.
One of the biggest challenges to the company’s target is likely to be the economics of fibre deployment.
Unlike mobile services, fibre broadband requires operators to build physical networks close to customers, resulting in significant spending on ducts, cables, equipment, maintenance and access to roads and other rights of way before subscriber revenue is fully realised.
Ore had previously raised concerns about the financial pressures facing fibre operators, noting that multiple taxes and right-of-way fees increase operating costs and hinder network expansion.
The company is also seeking partnerships across Africa as it attempts to expand its role beyond providing household internet services.
According to Ore, FiberOne has already laid more than 3,900 kilometres of fibre, highlighting the scale of infrastructure required to extend fixed broadband coverage.
The company’s expansion plans come amid intense competition in Nigeria’s internet market.
Starlink has expanded rapidly in the country’s ISP market, while major telecom operators including MTN and Airtel continue to invest in fibre and 5G networks.
Independent fibre operators are therefore competing on speed, reliability, pricing and service quality while seeking to recover the significant cost of network deployment.
Ore said FiberOne was committed to maintaining affordable rates despite rising operating expenses.
“We also spoke about our partnerships across Africa and how we maintain quality of service and affordable rates despite rising operating costs,” he said.
FiberOne’s reported subscriber base has since recovered to more than 40,000, according to Ore, but reaching one million customers would require a substantially larger operation.
The company would need to expand its network into new neighbourhoods and cities, maintain competitive pricing, reduce customer churn and preserve service reliability as the number of connected households and businesses grows.
For Nigeria’s broadband market, such expansion could also be significant, as fixed internet remains a relatively small segment of the country’s overall connectivity market, with mobile networks accounting for the vast majority of internet users.
For Ore, however, the long-term opportunity extends beyond providing internet access.
“The future is connected, and we are excited to be building our part of it,” he said.
