For years, 9mobile carried the weight of unmet promises in Nigeria’s telecom market. Patchy service, shrinking market share, and a revolving door of owners left it trailing far behind MTN, Airtel, and Globacom. Now, the company has shed its old name and emerged as T2 Mobile, with a recovery plan that leans on partnerships, fresh capital, and a new identity.

The operator, majority-owned by UK-based Lighthouse Telecoms, has already secured high-profile deals. In recent weeks it signed a multi-million-dollar agreement with India’s Knot Solutions to overhaul its business and operations support systems. Around the same time, it tapped Huawei to upgrade its core network, a move meant to shore up performance and reliability.

These contracts fit into a four-phase strategy the company has laid out: stabilisation, modernisation, transformation, and growth. To back it, T2 has earmarked $3 billion for investment over the next four years. Local press reports suggest the push is already making a dent. In July alone, the company added nearly 291,000 subscribers, lifting its base to 2.7 million. That’s still a slim 1.61 percent share of Nigeria’s 169 million subscriptions, but growth after years of decline is notable.

T2’s struggles have roots stretching back to its Etisalat Nigeria era. The brand once claimed over 20 million customers, but a mix of loan defaults, naira devaluations, and ownership disputes steadily eroded its position. When the regulator had to intervene in 2017, a rebrand to 9mobile followed. Yet the company continued to stumble, losing subscribers as rivals expanded.

Today’s rebrand feels different. Beyond a new logo and name, management has secured a national roaming deal with MTN to close coverage gaps, strengthened its executive team, and tried to draw a line under years of instability. Whether the operator can scale back into relevance depends on execution. Nigeria’s market is unforgiving: margins are tight, regulators are active, and customer expectations around service quality are rising.

For now, T2 Mobile is asking subscribers to believe that this time, renewal is more than a new coat of paint.