Airtel Nigeria said that it is engaging in massive investment in its network infrastructure to improve services to its subscribers.
Dinesh Balsingh, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria who did not disclose how much the multinational telecom company has invested so far told journalists Thursday in Lagos that the telecom company will continue with this investment this year to improve coverage across digital services.
Already, the network has increased its telecom sites from 15,000 to 17,000 between December 2023 and early 2025 across the country which represents 15 percent growth. Dinesh added that further expansion is already ongoing this year.
According to him, in the last two to three years, the company has expanded its “geographical network by close to 15 per cent, and we intend to repeat that scale of expansion again in 2026” .
He also said that while the company is increasing its sites, it is also improving and adding more capacity to the existing sites to cater to the increasing traffic.
He explained that such investments on sites location were targeted at rural areas across the country to create a seamless service for rural dwellers. He said these investments are also increasing Airtel coverage footprint in those areas.
He noted that “everybody has the right to digital connectivity, including people in deep rural markets and small communities” .
Dinesh also spoke of plans to connect the sites which are running on diesel to grid.
‘ Our preference is on our existing sites and new sites which are currently running on generators and diesel. They are adding to the carbon footprint. Our objective and our mission is to convert all these sites to grid first.
‘The moment there is grid on the sites, that means the diesel consumption will go less, carbon emission will go down”. He said the company has already purchased very high batteries, which can give power backup of up to 20 hours”.
Dinesh further said that most of the Airtel’s network sites in most remote areas were 4G-enabled.
“4G remains the backbone of mobile data usage, and expanding spectrum is like widening the highway for traffic,” he said.
On 5G, Dinesh said Airtel has doubled its 5G sites in the last three months and planned to migrate about 25 per cent of its network in the top 20 cities to 5G over time.
Speaking on AI, the CEO said there are a lot of excitement in AI, “we are ready for it as AI will play a huge place.
On challenges being experienced by network operators on fibre installations, Dinesh acknowledged challenges especially on fibre cuts and infrastructure damage, but commended government efforts to protect telecom assets.
