Airtel Nigeria is accelerating the rollout of its 5G network as part of a broader investment programme aimed at expanding capacity, strengthening network resilience, and meeting Nigeria’s rapidly growing demand for high-speed data services, according to the company’s chief executive officer, Dinesh Balsing.
Speaking Thursday at a 2026 media roundtable in Lagos, Balsing said Airtel has more than doubled its 5G sites over the past three months and plans to extend 5G coverage to 25% of its sites across Nigeria’s top 20 cities by the end of the year. While 4G remains the backbone of the operator’s mobile network, covering 99.99% of its sites nationwide, he noted that 5G deployment is being prioritised for fixed wireless access and home broadband services, particularly in urban centres.
“5G is a big thrust area for us,” Balsing said. “The device ecosystem is still evolving, but for home broadband and fixed wireless solutions, 5G is already delivering significant value.”
“5G is a big thrust area for us,” Balsing said. “The device ecosystem is still evolving, but for home broadband and fixed wireless solutions, 5G is already delivering significant value.”
Airtel Nigeria CEO says extensive upgrades driving 5G push
The Airtel CEO explained that the 5G push is supported by extensive upgrades to the existing network. Over the past year, the company has enhanced 25% of its sites with additional radio equipment to manage rising traffic volumes, while expanding its 4G spectrum holdings by 10 megahertz, a move he said has delivered a 20% increase in network capacity.
Balsing also outlined the persistent challenges affecting network stability in Nigeria, including fibre cuts, vandalism, road construction, and accidental damage. To mitigate these risks, he said Airtel is funding and deploying dedicated patrol teams to monitor critical fibre routes along major transport corridors, while maintaining strict service-level agreements with infrastructure partners.
“We have patrolling teams, and we fund them to monitor fibre routes around the roads,” Balsing said. “We also have very tight service-level agreements with our partners who manage those roads. When a fibre cut occurs, automation and apps help us identify the exact location and deploy repair teams immediately.”
Beyond surveillance and rapid response, Balsing noted that Airtel is investing heavily in network redundancy to minimise service disruption.
“Our strategy is never to rely on a single route. If there are two paths, we invest in building a third. In volatile corridors, we may have five or six alternative routes,” he said, adding that collaboration with other operators is critical to improving fibre resilience and limiting customer impact.
To extend connectivity beyond fibre-served areas, Airtel is also leveraging satellite technologies such as Starlink and OneWeb to reach rural and hard-to-serve communities. This includes what Balsing described as Nigeria’s first direct-to-cell satellite partnership, designed to keep mobile devices connected in locations where terrestrial infrastructure is unavailable.
On international capacity, Balsing disclosed that Airtel is expanding its fibre backbone by 25% and preparing to activate a second international internet breakout point through Nairobi. The move, he said, will reduce dependence on Lagos as the country’s primary data exit point and further strengthen network resilience.
The CEO also highlighted Airtel’s data centre investments, including its Lagos facility, which hosts 20,000 gigahertz of compute capacity and 20 petabytes of storage. The facility already deploys artificial intelligence for network self-healing, fraud detection, and advanced analytics. Plans are also underway for a 38-megawatt, hyperscaler-ready data centre in Eko Atlantic to support enterprise and AI workloads across Nigeria and West Africa.
These infrastructure investments, according to the Airtel Nigeria CEO, are complemented by Airtel’s extensive retail footprint of more than 200,000 outlets nationwide, including 4,000 exclusive stores and 250 flagship locations, ensuring broad access to services for both smartphone and feature phone users.
“2026 will be a year of high-powered investment and innovation,” Balsing said. “We are building the foundations today to ensure Nigerians have access to world-class digital services tomorrow.”
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