Media King picks Nigeria as first cease in Africa’s public WiFi push

Media King Group, a Croatian sensible public WiFi supplier, is setting its sights on Nigeria, considered one of Africa’s most difficult connectivity markets, to check a brand new public WiFi mannequin that would reshape how cities keep on-line.

Based in 2017 by Darko Kraljević, the corporate has spent practically a decade constructing what it calls a “sensible WiFi” system designed to repair a well-known downside: networks that buckle beneath heavy demand. 

Now, by a neighborhood partnership led by Nigerian entrepreneur and movie producer Charles Okpaleke, Media King is getting ready its first large-scale African rollout, with Nigeria because the launchpad for a broader continental push.

“We don’t need to simply be native in Nigeria,” Kraljević advised TechCabal in April 2026. “Nigeria would be the start line for the complete African market.”

Media King is betting {that a} cloud-managed WiFi structure can succeed the place earlier public entry efforts have stalled. Large Tech-backed initiatives, together with Meta, Google, and Microsoft-linked deployments by way of Tizeti, have all struggled to make free public WiFi viable at scale in Nigeria.

In contrast to earlier makes an attempt to “blanket” areas with customary Wi-Fi protocols, which struggled with Nigeria’s excessive consumer density and energy instability, Media King’s method rethinks the structure. 

As a substitute of counting on entry factors that each join customers and course of visitors, it shifts the heavy lifting, visitors administration, routing, and bandwidth allocation into the cloud. The corporate claims that the method makes networks cheaper to deploy, simpler to scale, and extra resilient in high-density environments the place demand sometimes overwhelms infrastructure.

Conventional methods depend on entry factors that each join customers and deal with computing duties. However as extra customers pile on, these methods rapidly overload, resulting in the acquainted expertise of gradual speeds or full failure in crowded areas like airports, malls, or metropolis squares.

Media King shifts that computing burden away from the {hardware} right into a centralised cloud-based system. In Kraljević’s telling, entry factors develop into little greater than “antennas,” whereas the heavy lifting, visitors administration, bandwidth allocation, and routing are dealt with remotely and dynamically.

The outcome, he claims, is a community that may assist a limiteless variety of concurrent customers with out degrading efficiency. As a substitute of rationing bandwidth equally, the system allocates assets in actual time, prioritising customers with heavier information wants whereas sustaining general stability.

That promise has already been examined in Croatia, the place Media King was born and deployed what was described as Europe’s quickest public WiFi community alongside Break up’s busy waterfront. The system has since been utilized in purchasing malls, public transport methods, hospitals, and authorities buildings, usually in high-density environments the place standard networks wrestle.

For the Nigerian companions, the attraction lies not simply within the know-how however in its potential to succeed the place earlier public WiFi efforts within the nation have failed.

“The problem was that present infrastructure couldn’t reliably ship high quality service,” mentioned Afam Anyika, CEO of Media King Nigeria. “With 60–70% of budgets going into infrastructure, we’ve partnered with Media King International to chop upfront prices whereas nonetheless rolling out our methods nationwide.”

Nigeria has seen a number of makes an attempt at public connectivity, from government-backed initiatives to experiments by world tech giants. Nonetheless, most have struggled with sustainability, excessive infrastructure prices, and poor service high quality. In lots of instances, networks deteriorated rapidly or didn’t scale past pilot phases.

“The actual concern has at all times been that conventional infrastructure can’t meet real-world demand,” mentioned Anyika. “Even once you resolve for entry, the standard drops as extra folks join.”

Media King believes its mannequin addresses each the technical and industrial challenges. By partnering regionally, the corporate avoids the heavy upfront prices sometimes related to infrastructure deployment, as an alternative specializing in operations, workforce growth, and market enlargement.

Crucially, the service might be free for finish customers, a non-negotiable, in keeping with Kraljević. “It have to be free, as a result of another person pays,” he mentioned.

That “somebody” is predicted to come back from a mixture of advertisers, authorities use instances, and data-driven companies constructed on prime of the community. Media King’s platform contains an built-in digital layer that turns every WiFi hotspot right into a communication and promoting channel. When customers join, they are often directed to focused content material, public service bulletins, or model campaigns.

Past promoting, the system additionally presents anonymised information insights, comparable to foot visitors and dwell time, to assist companies and governments make selections about city planning, service supply, and buyer engagement.

The corporate says it has already deployed the mannequin in Croatia, the place its community supported public well being messaging through the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s now exploring comparable use instances in Nigeria, spanning training, healthcare, and native authorities companies.

Nevertheless, increasing into Nigeria comes with notable execution dangers, significantly on the regulatory entrance. As of 2026, the introduction of the Web Code of Observe has tightened oversight, clearly defining the obligations of Web Entry Service Suppliers, together with these providing public WiFi hotspots. Below NCC pointers, industrial or public WiFi is now not plug-and-play—operators should get hold of a legitimate ISP licence, sometimes renewable each 5 years, and register every hotspot location with the Fee.

Media King, nevertheless, maintains that it doesn’t require further licencing as a result of it operates on present public WiFi frequencies and companions with native web service suppliers. The corporate additionally plans to completely localise its deployment, from information infrastructure to operational groups, to cut back latency and higher align with regulatory expectations.

Preliminary rollouts are anticipated later this yr to focus on high-density city areas and underserved communities with restricted broadband entry. 

In some instances, the corporate says it may mix its system with satellite tv for pc connectivity, comparable to Starlink, to increase protection to distant areas with out conventional fibre infrastructure.

For now, the main focus is on getting the primary deployments off the bottom. The corporate says it’s already in discussions with authorities and personal sector companions, with early rollouts anticipated this yr.

“We spent years proving this method works,” Kraljević mentioned. “Now we’re able to take it world, and Africa begins with Nigeria.”