AMN Crosses 2,000 Rural Sites in Nigeria as Network Expansion Moves Beyond Urban Coverage
Africa Mobile Networks (AMN) has activated its 2,000th base station in Nigeria, making the country the largest national component of the company’s rural mobile infrastructure network.
According to AMN, its Nigerian sites now represent about 10% of the active tower footprint of the country’s largest mobile network operator and connect more than 4.7 million previously unserved or underserved people to 2G, 3G and 4G services. The company expects to exceed 2,100 Nigerian sites by the end of 2026 and deploy more than 60 additional sites per month during 2027.
AMN builds, owns, operates and maintains the infrastructure under a Network-as-a-Service model. The company says its model allows Tier 1 mobile operators to extend coverage without upfront capital expenditure or operating-cost risk, with AMN generating revenue through a revenue-sharing arrangement.
The company’s technology is designed specifically for rural deployments. Its standard network architecture integrates the power system, backhaul and radio access network into a single structure. AMN says it can typically deploy its standard base stations in four hours, and its solar-powered systems provide up to three days of battery autonomy.
Satellite as a Critical Part of the Rural Network
One notable element of AMN’s Nigerian expansion is its use of low Earth orbit satellite connectivity as backhaul. AMN’s 2,000-site announcement identifies Yebu as the location of its first Nigerian site combining the company’s AMN Radio Node with Starlink connectivity. The company previously reported deploying Starlink backhaul at more than 100 rural Nigerian base stations and recorded an average 45% increase in traffic across sites using the service.
At the Yebu site, AMN recently recorded 4G download speeds exceeding 81 Mbps during testing of a dual-band configuration. The satellite connection serves as backhaul, linking the mobile base station to the wider network. It does not replace the terrestrial mobile radio network serving users on the ground. AMN’s Radio Node provides the 2G, 3G and 4G access layer, while Starlink provides the satellite link between the rural site and the wider network.
AMN has been developing this architecture since its first Starlink-backed Nigerian base station went live in 2024. By September 2024, the company said more than 100 Nigerian sites were already using Starlink backhaul.
Expansion Continues
The 2,000-site milestone comes as AMN expands its overall African footprint. The company says it now operates more than 5,350 sites across Africa and connects more than 15 million people. In Nigeria, AMN says it previously reached a peak installation rate of 114 new sites in a single month. Its planned deployment rate of more than 60 sites per month in 2027 would continue the company’s focus on extending mobile infrastructure into communities without existing usable coverage.
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The Nigerian deployment therefore combines two infrastructure approaches: AMN’s purpose-built rural mobile network and, where required, satellite backhaul to connect those sites to the wider network.
For operators seeking to extend mobile coverage into areas where conventional terrestrial backhaul is unavailable, AMN’s growing Nigerian network shows how satellite connectivity can be incorporated into an existing mobile infrastructure model rather than deployed as a standalone connectivity service.