Nigeria’s internet infrastructure could be set for a major upgrade as Airtel Nigeria has disclosed plans to establish a second internet breakout point from the southern part of the country, a move expected to significantly improve speed, redundancy and overall network resilience.
The proposed breakout will leverage the 2Africa submarine cable, with traffic routed through Kwa Ibo in Akwa Ibom State. This represents a strategic shift for the country, which currently depends largely on Lagos as its sole submarine cable landing and internet breakout hub.
By introducing an alternative path outside Lagos, Airtel says the new infrastructure will provide faster routing for large parts of both northern and southern Nigeria, while also strengthening the resilience of the national internet ecosystem against outages and congestion.
The plan was unveiled during a media roundtable in Lagos, where Airtel Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Dinesh Balsingh, linked the initiative to the company’s expanding fibre backbone and long-term investment strategy.
According to Balsingh, the new breakout is supported by Airtel’s nationwide fibre network, which now spans almost all states after years of sustained capital investment. Following its announcement last year to double capital expenditure, the telecom operator committed to expanding its fibre footprint by 25 percent.
Airtel said intensive rollout activities are currently underway across multiple cities and states, with further fibre extensions planned both within major urban centres and across inter-state corridors.
“Over the last two years, we have invested with discipline and clarity to strengthen our network nationwide,” Balsingh said. “Those investments are now translating into measurable improvements in performance, customer experience and reach, including in underserved and hard-to-reach communities.”
He added that network upgrades will accelerate further in 2026 as data consumption in Nigeria continues to rise, noting that long-term planning will be critical to sustaining leadership in the telecoms sector.
At the core of Airtel Nigeria’s quality-of-service drive is the rapid expansion of its network footprint. Since December 2023, the company has increased its number of network sites by 15.5 percent, adding 2,242 new locations and bringing its total to nearly 16,711 sites nationwide. Additional deployments are planned in 2026 to strengthen coverage, capacity and resilience across both urban and rural areas.
Network capacity upgrades have also been scaled up. In 2025 alone, Airtel completed capacity enhancements on 30 percent of its sites, covering more than 5,032 locations across the country. As a result, the operator said 99 percent of its sites now deliver high-speed 4G mobile broadband, positioning Airtel as a fully nationwide 4G network.
Alongside its 4G expansion, the company is accelerating its 5G rollout. Over the past three months, Airtel has more than doubled the number of active 5G sites. The ongoing upgrade is expected to connect Nigeria’s top 20 cities to high-speed 5G networks, with a significant share of Airtel’s infrastructure in those cities becoming 5G-enabled within the next year.
Despite this aggressive push, 5G coverage remains limited nationwide, including in major urban centres where services were first launched. Recent data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shows that as of the fourth quarter of 2025, about 55.4 percent of Lagos State still lacked 5G coverage.
Nigeria’s first 5G service was launched by MTN in September 2022, followed by Airtel Nigeria in June 2023. Mafab Communications, which also holds a 5G licence, has yet to make significant progress, despite announcing a launch in January 2023.
However, the NCC noted that in areas where 5G is currently available, user experience has largely met the performance expectations set during the spectrum auction, suggesting strong potential as coverage expands.