East Africa – mobile services

East Africa is achieving the fastest GDP growth in the continent, with the UN estimating growth of 5.4% in 2025 and projecting 5.8% in 2026. Our six markets in the region include some of the most youthful and dynamic digital economies in Africa – but despite the rapid uptake of data and mobile services, smartphone penetration stands at 46.6% and only 0.5% of total customers access home broadband (HBB) services, – so there is still a clear runway for growth.

We aim to harness that potential by enhancing the experience of our customers through stronger, safer and more resilient networks and by expanding our distribution and customer service offers through both physical outlets and digital tools. In 2025/26, that included rolling out 1,500 new 4G sites and adding 993 5G sites while expanding our fibre cable network and applying granular insights at a very localised level to close coverage gaps. As well as extending our reach and reducing outages, this supported our focus on HBB, our fastest-growing product across the region. Spam alerts, anti-fraud message services and self-service offers all improved the customer experience.

Our distribution reach also continued to expand and, in a highly competitive region, we maintained growth of our customer base while increasing smartphone penetration through partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), device financing initiatives, smartphone promotions and segmented bundles.

At the same time, we navigated a number of headwinds in our markets. Fuel shortages and extreme weather incidents created pressure on our network at times and foreign exchange volatility had an impact in Malawi and Tanzania, in particular. Overall, however, we mitigated these risks and delivered another year of revenue and ARPU growth while continuing to deliver the essential mobile services that are transforming lives in our region.

East Africa revenue grew by 18.9% in reported currency to $2,192m and by 13.8% in constant currency. Higher reported currency revenue growth as compared to constant currency was primarily due to appreciation in the Zambian kwacha, Ugandan shilling and Tanzanian shilling. The constant currency growth was made up of voice revenue growth of 12.5% and data revenue growth of 18.0%.

Voice revenue growth was supported by customer base growth of 8.7% and voice ARPU growth of 2.2%. Customer base growth was largely driven by expansion of both network coverage and our distribution network.

Data customer base growth of 15.7% and data traffic growth of 50.3% were the primary drivers of data revenue growth. We continue to invest in our network and expand our 4G and 5G network services in the region. Over 2,200 sites are 5G enabled across five key markets, following the rollout of 5G services in Malawi in Q4’26. Data usage per customer increased to 8.0 GB per customer per month, up by 28.0%, with smartphone penetration increasing by 4.3% to reach 46.6%. Smartphone data usage per customer reached 9.8 GB per month compared to 7.8 GB per month in the prior period.

Underlying EBITDA increased to $1,063m, up by 21.3% in reported currency and by 14.9% in constant currency. Underlying EBITDA margins of 48.5% compared to 47.6% in the prior period, up by 93 bps.

Operating free cash flow was $732m, up by 15.6% in constant currency, largely due to underlying EBITDA growth, although partially offset by higher capex.

We operate in an evolving legal and regulatory landscape. Relevant changes in East Africa this year include:

Spectrum

Malawi
In November 2025, Airtel Malawi was assigned 10 MHz in the 800 MHz band and a further 10 MHz in the 2600 MHz band.

Tanzania
In December 2025, Airtel Tanzania received amended licences for the 700 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3500 MHz bands, formally aligning the spectrum fee payment obligations with the Foreign Currency Regulations 2025, confirming that all associated administrative fees must be denominated and settled in Tanzanian shillings going forward.