Airtel Nigeria has announced that 2026 will be a major year for network expansion as the company scales investments to enhance coverage, capacity, and digital resilience nationwide.
Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr Dinesh Balsingh, made this known on Thursday during an Airtel media roundtable in Lagos.
Balsingh said the company expanded its network footprint by about 15 per cent between December 2023 and early 2025, increasing its sites from roughly 15,000 to 17,000, with further expansion planned this year.
“Over the last two years, we have expanded our geographical network by close to 15 per cent, and we intend to repeat that scale of expansion again in 2026,” he said.
He explained that the investments focus on deep rural communities, small towns, and the fringes of major cities to improve coverage, capacity, and network resilience.
“Everyone has the right to digital connectivity, including people in deep rural markets and small communities,” Balsingh said.
According to him, Airtel has deployed satellite technology in remote locations where fiber access is impractical, citing communities in Adamawa and other parts of northern Nigeria now connected via Starlink.
“These are very remote villages where terrestrial fiber was practically impossible, but satellite connectivity is performing very well,” he said.
Balsingh noted that Airtel upgraded capacity on about 25 per cent of its existing sites in 2025 by deploying higher-capacity radios and migrating backhaul from microwave to fiber.
He added that 99.99 per cent of Airtel’s network sites are now 4G-enabled—even in remote areas—while spectrum capacity on the 4G network has increased by about 20 per cent to meet rising data demand.
“4G remains the backbone of mobile data usage, and expanding spectrum is like widening the highway for traffic,” he said.
On 5G, Balsingh said Airtel has more than doubled its 5G sites in the last three months and plans to migrate about 25 per cent of its network in the top 20 cities to 5G over time.
He also said Airtel is expanding its fiber backbone by about 25 per cent—having completed nearly half of the rollout—and plans a second internet breakout point from southern Nigeria to improve national network resilience.
“These investments are about building scale, capacity, and resilience for the long-term future of Nigeria,” Balsingh said.
He added that Airtel is strengthening its artificial intelligence and data centre capabilities, including a hyperscaler-ready facility expected to support advanced analytics, network automation, and consumer protection services.
Balsingh acknowledged ongoing challenges such as fiber cuts and infrastructure damage but commended government and regulatory efforts to protect telecom assets under the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) framework.
“We are very happy with what the government and the regulator are doing around CNII, especially the focus on reducing fiber cuts, which affect all operators and consumers,” he said.
Balsingh said that despite challenges like fiber cuts, Airtel remains committed to sustained investment, describing 2026 as another massive year for network and digital infrastructure development in Nigeria.
