Airtel ramps up fibre by 25%, adds 2,200 sites as data demand surges in Nigeria

Airtel Nigeria said it is expanding its fibre network by 25 percent and has added more than 2,200 new network sites as part of a major investment push to meet surging data demand across Africa’s largest telecoms market.

The company disclosed the upgrades at its first media roundtable of 2026 in Lagos, outlining network, fibre and technology investments made over the past 12 months to 24 months and further deployments planned this year.

Airtel said it has increased its network footprint by 15.5 percent since December 2023, adding 2,242 sites and bringing its total to nearly 16,711 sites nationwide. The expansion is aimed at strengthening coverage, boosting capacity and improving resilience across both urban centres and underserved rural areas.

The operator said it is scaling its fibre backbone to support the rapid growth in mobile data usage, cloud services and enterprise connectivity. Following its decision to double capital expenditure last year, Airtel committed to expanding its fibre footprint by 25 percent, with intensive rollout activity currently underway across cities and states. The company also said it plans to extend fibre links further within major cities and between states.

Dinesh Balsingh, Airtel Nigeria chief executive officer, said leadership in the telecoms sector will increasingly depend on the ability to anticipate and invest ahead of rising data consumption.

“Nigeria’s data appetite is growing rapidly, and leadership in this industry will belong to those who plan ahead,” Balsingh said, adding that recent investments are already translating into measurable improvements in network performance and customer experience.

Network capacity upgrades have also accelerated. In 2025, Airtel completed capacity enhancements on about 30 percent of its sites, covering more than 5,000 locations nationwide. The company said 99 percent of its sites now deliver high-speed 4G mobile broadband, enabling consistent data performance across most of its network.

To further improve data speeds and reliability, Airtel said it has increased its 4G spectrum holdings by 10MHz and is actively optimising its spectrum assets, particularly in high-traffic locations.

The company is also expanding its 5G footprint, more than doubling the number of active 5G sites in the past three months. Airtel said the accelerated rollout will connect the top 20 Nigerian cities to high-speed 5G networks, with a significant portion of its urban network expected to become 5G-enabled over the next year.

On international connectivity, Airtel announced plans to launch a second internet breakout point in southern Nigeria, reducing the country’s reliance on a single landing and breakout location in Lagos. The new breakout, linked to the 2Africa submarine cable, will operate from Kwa Ibo in Akwa Ibom State and is expected to improve network resilience and data speeds across large parts of the country.

Airtel is also complementing its terrestrial fibre network with satellite partnerships with OneWeb and Starlink to provide enterprise-grade connectivity in remote and hard-to-reach locations. The company recently announced Nigeria’s first Direct-to-Cell partnership with Starlink, aimed at extending basic connectivity to deep rural areas.

As part of its broader data-driven strategy, Airtel said it is strengthening its cloud and data infrastructure, including an enterprise-grade private cloud and AI-enabled systems for fraud detection, network optimisation and customer analytics. The company has also announced plans to launch a hyperscaler-ready 38-megawatt data centre in Eko Atlantic.

Balsingh said Airtel remains committed to sustained investment in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure, positioning fibre, data and network resilience at the centre of its long-term growth strategy.

Royal Ibeh is a senior journalist with years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s technology and health sectors. She currently covers the Technology and Health beats for BusinessDay newspaper, where she writes in-depth stories on digital innovation, telecom infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public health policies.

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