Airtel Africa has accelerated its digital infrastructure expansion across Africa, rolling out thousands of new telecom sites, scaling 5G coverage, and investing heavily in fibre and data centres.
Similarly, Airtel Africa’s smartphone adoption and data demand continue to surge.
The telecom operator disclosed in its FY2026 financial results that smartphone customers rose by 22 per cent to 91 million users, driving an almost 50 per cent increase in data traffic across its network.
The company said it rolled out more than 3,250 infrastructure sites during the year, while over 98 per cent of its network sites are now 4G-enabled.
Airtel Africa also operates more than 3,100 5G sites across six African markets, including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Malawi.
To support growing enterprise and broadband demand, Airtel Africa expanded its fibre network by an additional 3,200 kilometres, bringing total fibre deployment to nearly 82,000 kilometres across the continent.
The company is also deepening investments in data centres through Nxtra by Airtel, its enterprise infrastructure subsidiary.
In September 2025, Nxtra began construction of a 44-megawatt hyperscale data centre in Nairobi, Kenya, expected to become East Africa’s largest data centre upon completion in 2027. This follows the commencement of a separate 38-megawatt data centre project in Lagos, Nigeria.
Airtel Africa said home broadband demand is emerging as a major growth segment, with its home broadband customer base growing by 86 per cent year-on-year. Average customer consumption reached 195GB monthly across its markets.
The telecom operator also highlighted growing adoption of its MyAirtel platform, where digitally engaged users increased by 55 per cent while app transacting users rose by 74 per cent year-on-year.
In a major connectivity push, Airtel Africa announced a partnership with SpaceX to launch Starlink Direct-to-Cell satellite connectivity across its 14 African markets.
The initiative is expected to extend mobile connectivity to underserved rural communities without terrestrial network coverage.
The company said the satellite rollout would proceed subject to regulatory approvals in individual countries.
