Airtel Nigeria Accelerates Telecom Growth with Major Network, 4G, 5G and Satellite Upgrades
By The People’s Voice Nigeria News
Airtel Nigeria has announced a sweeping series of network, infrastructure, and technology advancements that position the company at the forefront of quality of service leadership in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector. The updates were unveiled at Airtel Nigeria’s first media roundtable of 2026 and reflect sustained investments over the past 12 to 24 months, signalling an accelerated push to meet surging data demand in a rapidly digitising economy.
Speaking to senior editors and industry correspondents, Dinesh Balsingh, CEO of Airtel Nigeria, said the company’s strategy is anchored on deliberate scale, depth, and resilience.
“Over the last two years, we have invested with discipline and clarity to strengthen our network nationwide. Those investments are now translating into measurable improvements in performance, customer experience, and reach, including in underserved and hard-to-reach communities,” he said. “In 2026, we are accelerating these upgrades because Nigeria’s data appetite is growing, and leadership in this industry will belong to those who plan ahead.”
At the core of Airtel Nigeria’s quality of service drive is the rapid expansion of its network footprint. Since December 2023, the company has increased the number of network sites by 15.5%, adding 2,242 new sites and bringing the total to nearly 16,711 nationwide. Further deployments are planned in 2026 to strengthen coverage, capacity, and resilience across both urban and rural locations.
Network capacity upgrades have also reached significant scale. In 2025, Airtel completed capacity enhancements on 30% of its sites, covering over 5,032 sites nationwide. Today, 99% of Airtel Nigeria’s sites deliver high-speed 4G mobile broadband, establishing the operator as a full nationwide 4G network. Capacity upgrades are being extended to more sites in 2026 to sustain performance as data usage continues to rise.
Harmanpreet Singh Dhillon, Chief Technology Officer, explained that spectrum depth and optimisation are critical to network quality.
“We have increased our 4G spectrum by 10MHz and we are actively optimising our holdings. These actions allow us to support higher data throughput, better speeds, and more consistent service, especially in high-traffic areas,” he said.
Airtel Nigeria is also accelerating its 5G rollout. Over the past three months, the number of active 5G sites has more than doubled. The rollout will connect the top 20 Nigerian cities to high-speed 5G networks, with a significant portion of Airtel’s urban network becoming 5G-enabled in the coming year.
Beyond terrestrial infrastructure, Airtel is expanding connectivity through space-based solutions. The company has signed partnerships with OneWeb and Starlink, enabling enterprise-grade connectivity for businesses in remote and hard-to-reach locations. Airtel recently announced Nigeria’s first Direct-to-Cell partnership with Starlink, allowing customers to remain connected while travelling through remote areas and enabling small rural communities to access Airtel’s digital and fintech services.
The company continues to expand its fibre backbone, with intensive rollout activity ongoing across cities and states. Plans include increasing fibre coverage by 25%, further extending its network between states and within major cities.
A major national milestone is also planned. Airtel Nigeria will launch a second internet breakout from the South of Nigeria, leveraging the 2Africa submarine cable from Kwa Ibo in Akwa Ibom State.
“This will create a faster and alternative path for large parts of the North and South, improving resilience for the entire ecosystem. Airtel is proud to take the lead in making this happen,” Balsingh said.
Supporting these services is a robust IT and cloud infrastructure, including enterprise-grade private cloud systems and GPU clusters for AI-driven applications such as fraud detection, intelligent network self-healing, and advanced customer analytics. Airtel has also announced the upcoming launch of its hyperscaler-ready 38MW data centre in Eko Atlantic, designed to power Nigeria’s next phase of digital growth.
From a customer access perspective, Airtel maintains one of the largest retail footprints in Nigeria, with over 200,000 outlets nationwide, supported by more than 4,000 exclusive shops across all local government areas and 250 flagship stores.
Balsingh concluded:
“Quality of service today is about resilience, redundancy, and intelligence, and that is what Airtel is delivering. From fibre to cloud to satellite-enabled connectivity, we are building a platform that allows Nigerian businesses to scale with confidence, regardless of location. Our focus is consistent investment, disciplined execution, and deep confidence in Nigeria’s future.”
Alongside Singh Dhillon, the roundtable included Ogo Ofomata (Director, Airtel Business), Ismail Adeshina (Director, Marketing), Kemi Ariyo (Director, IT), and Femi Adeniran (Director, Corporate Communications & CSR).
