Media King Group, a Croatian smart public WiFi provider, is setting its sights on Nigeria, one of Africa’s most challenging connectivity markets, to test a new public WiFi model that could reshape how cities stay online.
Founded in 2017 by Darko Kraljević, the company has spent nearly a decade building what it calls a “smart WiFi” system designed to fix a familiar problem: networks that buckle under heavy demand.
Now, through a local partnership led by Nigerian entrepreneur and film producer Charles Okpaleke, Media King is preparing its first large-scale African rollout, with Nigeria as the launchpad for a broader continental push.
“We don’t want to just be local in Nigeria,” Kraljević told in April 2026. “Nigeria will be the starting point for the entire African market.”
Media King is betting that a cloud-managed WiFi architecture can succeed where earlier public access efforts have stalled. Big Tech-backed initiatives, including Meta, Google, and Microsoft-linked deployments via Tizeti, have all struggled to make free public WiFi viable at scale in Nigeria.
Unlike earlier attempts to “blanket” areas with standard Wi-Fi protocols, which struggled with Nigeria’s high user density and power instability, Media King’s approach rethinks the architecture.
Instead of relying on access points that both connect users and process traffic, it shifts the heavy lifting, traffic management, routing, and bandwidth allocation into the cloud. The company claims that the approach makes networks cheaper to deploy, easier to scale, and more resilient in high-density environments where demand typically overwhelms infrastructure.
Traditional systems rely on access points that both connect users and handle computing tasks. But as more users pile on, those systems quickly overload, leading to the familiar experience of slow speeds or complete failure in crowded areas like airports, malls, or city squares.
Media King shifts that computing burden away from the hardware into a centralised cloud-based system. In Kraljević’s telling, access points become little more than “antennas,” while the heavy lifting, traffic management, bandwidth allocation, and routing are handled remotely and dynamically.
The result, he claims, is a network that can support an unlimited number of concurrent users without degrading performance. Instead of rationing bandwidth equally, the system allocates resources in real time, prioritising users with heavier data needs while maintaining overall stability.
That promise has already been tested in Croatia, where Media King was born and deployed what was described as Europe’s fastest public WiFi network along Split’s busy waterfront. The system has since been used in shopping malls, public transport systems, hospitals, and government buildings, often in high-density environments where conventional networks struggle.
For the Nigerian partners, the appeal lies not just in the technology but in its potential to succeed where previous public WiFi efforts in the country have failed.
“The challenge was that existing infrastructure couldn’t reliably deliver quality service,” said Afam Anyika, CEO of Media King Nigeria. “With 60–70% of budgets going into infrastructure, we’ve partnered with Media King Global to cut upfront costs while still rolling out our systems nationwide.”
Nigeria has seen multiple attempts at public connectivity, from government-backed initiatives to experiments by global tech giants. Still, most have struggled with sustainability, high infrastructure costs, and poor service quality. In many cases, networks deteriorated quickly or failed to scale beyond pilot phases.
“The real issue has always been that traditional infrastructure cannot meet real-world demand,” said Anyika. “Even when you solve for access, the quality drops as more people connect.”
Media King believes its model addresses both the technical and commercial challenges. By partnering locally, the company avoids the heavy upfront costs typically associated with infrastructure deployment, instead focusing on operations, workforce development, and market expansion.
Crucially, the service will be free for end users, a non-negotiable, according to Kraljević. “It must be free, because someone else pays,” he said.
That “someone” is expected to come from a mix of advertisers, government use cases, and data-driven services built on top of the network. Media King’s platform includes an integrated digital layer that turns each WiFi hotspot into a communication and advertising channel. When users connect, they can be directed to targeted content, public service announcements, or brand campaigns.
Beyond advertising, the system also offers anonymised data insights, such as foot traffic and dwell time, to help businesses and governments make decisions about urban planning, service delivery, and customer engagement.
The company says it has already deployed the model in Croatia, where its network supported public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now exploring similar use cases in Nigeria, spanning education, healthcare, and local government services.
However, expanding into Nigeria comes with notable execution risks, particularly on the regulatory front. As of 2026, the introduction of the Internet Code of Practice has tightened oversight, clearly defining the obligations of Internet Access Service Providers, including those offering public WiFi hotspots. Under NCC guidelines, commercial or public WiFi is no longer plug-and-play—operators must obtain a valid ISP licence, typically renewable every five years, and register each hotspot location with the Commission.
Media King, however, maintains that it does not require additional licencing because it operates on existing public WiFi frequencies and partners with local internet service providers. The company also plans to fully localise its deployment, from data infrastructure to operational teams, to reduce latency and better align with regulatory expectations.
Initial rollouts are expected later this year to target high-density urban areas and underserved communities with limited broadband access.
In some cases, the company says it could combine its system with satellite connectivity, such as Starlink, to extend coverage to remote locations without traditional fibre infrastructure.
For now, the focus is on getting the first deployments off the ground. The company says it is already in discussions with government and private sector partners, with early rollouts expected this year.
“We spent years proving this system works,” Kraljević said. “Now we are ready to take it global, and Africa starts with Nigeria.”
