Airtel Africa bets major share of $1.1bn CAPEX on spectrum acquisition and fibre rollout in 2026

Telecoms company Airtel Africa has revealed that most of its $1.1 billion capital expenditure (CAPEX) for 2026 will go to fibre rollouts and spectrum acquisition. This forms part of the company’s plans to improve network quality across its 14 African markets.

In an interview with Arise News during the Business Report program on Friday, Airtel Africa CEO Sunil Taldar shared that the company wants to improve customer experience and leverage new infrastructure to deepen internet penetration.  

Africa is witnessing an impressive growth in smartphone adoption, which, in turn, yields massive internet penetration. As a result, subscribers need high-speed, stable 4G and 5G networks to support data usage. 

“If you look at Africa, we see a huge opportunity in Africa with smartphone penetration. To realise this opportunity, what we need to do is to expand coverage. So our capital expansion goes into expanding coverage, first and foremost,” the CEO said. 

According to Sunil Taldar, telecom operators must keep investing in new infrastructure and upgrading existing ones to keep up with the continued growth in telecom users. With this, the company will spend a large percentage of its $1.1 billion capex on spectrum and fibre optic cable.

“To add data capacity to support this continuously growing demand for data, we need to manage this entire consumption growth trend in our transport market, from massive markets to fibre.” 

“Big investment is going into acquiring new spectrum wherever spectrum is available. So this is for our mobile growth. Then what we’re also seeing is that home broadband is another emerging opportunity in Africa.”

In its Q2 2026 earnings report, the company said it had secured regulatory approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the renewal of the 900MHz spectrum licence of its Nigerian subsidiary. 

Under the agreement, the 900MHz spectrum renewal fee has been set at $37 million, with payment to be made in naira of ₦50.5 billion at an exchange rate of ₦1,365/$1. 

Also, the renewed operating licence will be valid for 10 years, commencing officially upon the expiration of the previous licence term. While the current one signed in February 2021 runs from December 1, 2021, until November 30, 2031, the newly confirmed agreement will be immediately implemented from December 1, 2031, to November 30, 2041. 

Airtel Chief: Fibre cuts, vandalism still greatest threat

Amid increases in retained earnings, divestment and funding plans for new telecom infrastructure, Sunil Taldar had pointed to consistent fibre cuts and vandalism of connectivity equipment as a major threat to network quality. 

During the interview, he warned that the increase in damage to fibre cables and theft of batteries, cables and diesel, as well as damage to generators, lead to a continuous rise in network outages.

Despite the designation of telecom infrastructure as critical national assets, bad actors continue to destroy telecom equipment. In the first three months of the year, telecom operators recorded an average of 500 fibre cuts per week. 

Taldar called for more effort to curtail the damage to national infrastructure and urged Nigerians to raise an alarm any time they catch persons damaging or stealing telecoms infrastructure.

Also Read: NCC cautions road contractors after 5,000+ fibre cuts in H1 2026, sets up protection committee.

The group’s revenue during the quarter increased by 31% year-on-year to $1.85 billion, powered by data revenue and voice revenue of $750 million and $640 million, respectively. Total revenue from mobile money operations was $404 million, with revenue from other services at $129 million.

The group’s customer base across its 14 African markets increased from 169.4 million to 189 million, while the data customer base closed in on 90 million. The operator recorded $3.3 in average revenue per user, an improvement from $2.8 a year ago.