Airtel to build Nigeria’s 2nd internet breakout, targets improved connectivity

Airtel Nigeria, in partnership with 2Africa, is planning to launch Nigeria’s second internet breakout. The infrastructural upgrade will leverage 2Africa’s submarine cable by carrying internet breakout traffic from Kwa Ibo in Akwa Ibom State.

The infrastructure upgrade forms part of Airtel’s commitment to investment and building a digitally-backed future for its customers and the country. The company noted that last year’s announcement to double capital expenditure is part of the mantra.

The plan was disclosed by the company in a media roundtable with industry stakeholders. The move is an attempt to alleviate connectivity pressures on the only internet submarine cable landing and breakout point in Lagos. 

Describing this as a pivotal national milestone, Airtel Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Dinesh Balsingh, explained that the project will allow a more stable internet, increased capacity and faster speeds, especially for internet subscribers in the South.

“This will create a faster and alternative path for large parts of the North and South, and improve resilience for the entire ecosystem. Airtel is proud to take the lead in making this happen,” Balsingh said.

Dinesh Balsingh

Airtel has also confirmed plans to expand its fibre footprint by 25%, within major cities and states. With these investments, coupled with its Direct-to-Cell partnership with Starlink, Airtel wants to position itself at the forefront of quality of service leadership in Nigeria’s telecoms industry.

Balsingh said that from fibre to cloud to satellite-enabled connectivity, the operator is building a platform for Nigerian businesses to scale regardless of location. He added that quality of service today“is about resilience, redundancy and intelligence, and that is what Airtel is delivering.”

Also Read: Nigeria targets better, inclusive internet connectivity with telecoms policy review.

Airtel’s 4G and 5G network acceleration 

Nigeria’s 4G network has gained significant prominence over the past two years. Latest industry data revealed that the 4G network now accounts for nearly 53% market share, becoming the leading network in Nigeria, an increase from the 31.75% of January 2023. 

Airtel Nigeria is also navigating several network capacity upgrades. The company, during the media roundtable, revealed that 99% of its sites are now 4G-enabled. 

The reason is not far-fetched. In 2025, Airtel said it completed a capacity boost on 30% of its sites, covering over 5032 sites nationwide. Also, within the last two years, the operator has increased the number of network sites by 15.5%, by adding 2,242 new sites to bring its total to nearly 16,711 nationwide. 

Speaking on how Airtel plans to sustain these upgrades, Chief Technology Officer Harmanpreet Singh Dhillon explained that it will build more sites to keep up with customers’ data needs.

He added that 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.

In 2025 alone, the Nigerian telecoms industry added a total of 14.7 million subscribers, increasing from 164.93 million in December 2024 to 179.64 million in December 2025. While the rise in subscribers reflects a resilient industry rebounding from dips experienced in mid 2024, it indicates a growing demand for connectivity and infrastructure upgrades. 

Airtel Nigeria, which currently accounts for a 33.94% market share of  60.9 million subscribers, is expanding its network capacity to accommodate the rising number of voice and data service users. 

“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,” Balsingh said.

As part of this, Airtel said it has more than doubled the number of active 5G sites in the last few months. It added that the ongoing 5G upgrade will connect the top 20 Nigerian cities to high-speed 5G networks. 

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