AIRTEL Nigeria has expressed a desire to improve its service offerings in Nigeria, aiming to reach the forefront of quality-of-service leadership in the sector.

Speaking at its first media roundtable of 2026, Airtel Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Dinesh Balsingh, 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.”

According to him, at the core of Airtel Nigeria’s quality-of-service drive is the rapid expansion of its network footprint. He noted that since December 2023, the company has increased the number of network sites by 15.5 per cent, adding 2,242 new sites and bringing its total to nearly 16,711 nationwide.

He said further deployments are planned for 2026 to strengthen coverage, capacity, and resilience across urban and rural areas.

“Network capacity upgrades have also reached a significant scale. In 2025, Airtel completed capacity enhancements on 30 per cent of its sites, covering over 5,032 sites nationwide. Today, 99 per cent of Airtel Nigeria’s sites deliver high-speed 4G mobile broadband, establishing the operator as a full nationwide 4G network.

This year, capacity upgrades are being extended to more sites to sustain performance as data usage continues to rise,” he added.

According to Chief Technology Officer, Harmanpreet Singh Dhillon, spectrum depth and optimisation remain 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 last three months, the company has more than doubled the number of active 5G sites.

The accelerated 5G upgrade underway will connect the top 20 Nigerian cities to high-speed 5G networks, with a significant portion of Airtel’s network in these cities becoming 5G-enabled in the coming year.

Beyond terrestrial infrastructure, Airtel is extending connectivity through space-based solutions. The company has established and signed partnerships with satellite providers OneWeb and Starlink, enabling enterprise-grade connectivity for businesses in remote locations, hard-to-reach areas and operational outposts. Recently, Airtel announced Nigeria’s first Direct-to-Cell partnership with Starlink, a breakthrough that will allow customers to remain connected while travelling through deep remote areas and enable small rural communities to access Airtel’s digital and fintech services.

The backbone supporting these services continues to expand. Airtel Nigeria has built an extensive fibre footprint across almost all states, developed through years of sustained deployment. Following the announcement to double capital expenditure last year, the company committed to expanding its fibre network by 25 per cent, and intensive rollout activity is ongoing across cities and states. Airtel has also confirmed plans to further expand its fibre footprint, both within major cities and across states.

A pivotal national milestone is also on the horizon. Nigeria currently relies on a single internet submarine cable landing and breakout point in Lagos. Airtel Nigeria has announced that it will launch a second internet breakout from the South of Nigeria, leveraging the 2Africa submarine cable.

In partnership with 2Africa, Airtel will shortly begin carrying Internet breakout traffic from Kwa Ibo in Akwa Ibom state.