Service quality is a high priority material topic
Service quality
Reliable and high-quality network connectivity is essential for digital inclusion and economic growth
As one of Africa’s leading telecommunications providers, we are committed to enhancing service quality to help transform lives. We continue to invest in infrastructure, technology and resilient systems to expand coverage, strengthen network performance and deliver seamless connectivity for individuals and businesses across our 14 markets.
Our focus areas
Accessibility
Rolling out new sites and modernising existing sites to increase the percentage of the population with seamless access to our services, targeting at least 88% of the population by 2030.
Delivery
Extending our latest technology and products to all customers, improving network quality and enhancing customer experience.
Reliability
Increasing fibre connections to sites and building disaster recovery capability to guarantee reliable connectivity.
Our approach to managing service quality
In 2025/26, we continued to support our network's growth. We expanded our reach, improved service quality and enhanced operational resilience.
We expanded and modernised our network, advancing population coverage and improving service consistency across urban, semi-urban and rural areas. We proactively reoriented our core network strategy to address technology obsolescence, rising operating costs and evolving customer behaviour. This included replacing sunsetting legacy platforms with future-ready infrastructure and strengthening business continuity capabilities aligned with VoLTE (voice over long-term evolution) and 5G readiness.
We maintained a robust service quality assurance framework throughout the year. Our network operations centre provides 24/7 oversight, proactively addressing service disruptions through continuous real-time monitoring and advanced analytics. Customer feedback – gathered through call centre data, digital surveys and social media sentiment analysis – remains central to how we assess and respond to service quality risks.
A resilient network is one that keeps people connected even when conditions become difficult – and that matters most when connectivity is a lifeline for communities across Africa. Operating across 14 markets, we navigate a wide range of challenges, from civil instability and extreme weather events to fuel supply constraints and restricted site access. In 2025/26, our business continuity plan (BCP) was applied in several markets to maintain service continuity, with teams deploying crisis-response protocols, diversifying fuel sourcing, reorganising field operations and strengthening security arrangements as the situation required. We also continued to invest in the structural resilience of our network: building near-site disaster recovery capabilities, adding domestic and international transmission routes, expanding data centre redundancy and introducing quarterly resilience testing across the Group. Together, these measures helped us maintain strong network availability across our footprint, even in the most demanding operating environments we faced during the year.
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We’re accelerating innovation and automation to build an intelligent, future-ready network that drives long-term growth and customer value. Every step we take today is designed to build a more connected and empowered tomorrow.
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Razvan Ungureanu
Chief technology officer
Governance
Our chief technology officer (CTO) oversees network performance and service quality, supported by network directors across our 14 OpCos. Our governance structure ensures clear accountability and strategic alignment:
- Executive leadership sets service quality targets and aligns them with the Group’s business objectives
- The Group information network team covers network rollout, planning and optimisation, quality assurance, core services, enterprise connectivity and security
- The Network Monitoring Committee reviews key performance indicators (KPIs) monthly, quarterly and annually, assessing risks and recommending improvements
- Operational teams conduct continuous real-time monitoring using advanced analytics to predict and resolve network issues
- Structured reporting and reviews maintain transparency and drive improvements internally and externally
- Independent audits and customer feedback reinforce our commitment to high service quality and regulatory compliance
Governance structure for network (Group level)
Chief technology officer (CTO)*
Deputy CTO
Group network information workgroup
Deployment (rollouts)
Network services (core)
Network planning (transmission)
Enterprise / International connectivity
Group network monitoring workgroup
Network digital and quality assurance
Network security
Operational workgroup
Network operations
Passive infrastructure (data centres)
Network planning (radio)
Network directors (14 OpCos)
*Member ExCo
This governance model ensures we remain agile, customer-focused and responsive to evolving industry developments. At OpCo level, local teams follow 12 standard operating procedures and policies – covering areas from network security to fault management – which are reviewed by the Executive Risk Committee on a quarterly basis.
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
81.9%
total population covered by network
(81.2% in 2024/25)
75.6%
4G coverage
(74.4% in 2024/25)
40,378
infrastructure sites
(37,117 in 2024/25)
26.5%
sites connected to fibre network
(25.0% in 2024/25)
81.7%
data centres connected to fibre network
(79.8% in 2024/25)
Progress update against our targets
We’ve made strong progress in 2025/26 by enhancing network infrastructure and extending reliable connectivity to more people than ever. As of 31 March 2026, 81.9% of the population across our markets had access to our network, with 75.6% enjoying 4G connectivity and 9.2% covered by 5G. Data consumption is growing rapidly: daily average data traffic reached 22 petabytes (PB) as of 31 March 2026, reflecting 48.5% growth during this reporting year, with 71% of that traffic running on 4G and 26% on 5G.
Enhancing our network quality and coverage
We deployed over 3,250 new infrastructure sites in 2025/26. So far, our cumulative fibre rollout reached 81,900 km as of 31 March 2026, with approximately 3,200 km deployed during the year. The proportion of radio sites connected to fibre grew from 25.0% to 26.5% year on year, and 81.7% of our data centres now have dual fibre connections. We also reached 82,425 fibre-to-the-home passes, an important milestone in fixed broadband delivery for our customers.
Rural coverage remained a particular focus. In 2025/26, we added over 800 new rural sites with several markets showing strong results, driven by network modernisation, continued fibre rollout, 5G and VoLTE deployment, including the rollout of our satellite geolocation tool.
Innovative service offerings
Our 5G rollout continued across six markets, rolling out 1,650 sites in 2025/26 to over 3,100 cumulative sites as of 31 March 2026. 5G now accounts for approximately 26% of total data traffic.
VoLTE (voice over long-term evolution), a technology that allows voice calls to be made over a 4G LTE network rather than older 2G/3G networks, was launched in 13 markets as of 31 March 2026. This allows our customers to use better audio quality compared to traditional calls as well as faster connectivity. During the reporting year, we also initiated trials of JAVA-based SIM-cards with wireless internet browser (WIB) capability, delivering enhanced 5G security, secure over-the-air updates and improved protection from spam calls – supporting our commitment to a safer digital experience for every customer.
Ensuring service reliability and resilience through network modernisation
We strengthened network resilience by introducing near-disaster recovery sites in several markets – Niger, Tanzania, the DRC, Rwanda and Zambia – and deploying remote core sites in Kenya, Nigeria, the DRC, Uganda and Zambia to bring data processing closer to customers and reduce dependency on long-distance transmission links. Legacy core platform exits and migration to cloud-native, AI-enabled architecture continued across our footprint.
Our data centre improvements also delivered meaningful energy efficiency gains. We reduced our average power usage effectiveness (PUE) from 2.24 to 1.77, a 21% improvement.
Network coverage
Population coverage
Rollout of fibre connectivity to our infrastructure sites
4G coverage
Rollout of fibre connectivity to our data centres
Service quality in action
Improving network experience with the digital geolocation tool
As our network grows and demand from our customers evolves, ensuring consistent quality across every corner of every market becomes increasingly important. In 2025/26, we scaled the rollout of our digital geolocation tool, a deep-dive analytics platform that maps network performance at a granular 1km by 1km grid level, enabling our network teams to identify and address weak spots with far greater precision and speed.
This platform is now integral to our operations across 13 markets as we continue to scale the network to facilitate the growing needs of our customers. The platform is central to our gold-plating programme which targets more than 12,000 sites to enhance performance against 18 key metrics, including network availability, download speeds, call setup success rates, voice quality, call drop rates and more.
Every grid is monitored for performance, and the teams prioritise remediation according to a pre-set priority framework. The results are felt directly by customers: faster downloads for buffer-free browsing, fewer dropped calls and clearer voice quality.
Our resilient and reliable network allows our customers access to the digital world and keeps them connected to opportunity. Whether that’s a student streaming educational content, a small business owner accepting a mobile money payment or a family calling a relative far away, a better network means a better everyday life.
Partnerships in action
Impactful partnerships for innovation
We rely on strong partnerships to extend coverage, enhance service quality and bring innovative solutions to our customers.
Infrastructure sharing and modernisation of our network
We progressed network-sharing agreements with Vodacom in Tanzania and the DRC, enabling faster rollouts, better site availability and improved customer experience. We also continued network-sharing programmes with MTN in Nigeria and Uganda while partnering with Nokia to implement a managed services operational model in Rwanda, aimed at improving network reliability and responsiveness.
Extending our services to hard-to-reach areas via satellite technology
Airtel Madagascar brought six rural sites online using OneWeb satellite technology, extending mobile service to remote villages where conventional tower deployment isn’t practical. We also announced an agreement with SpaceX to use Starlink satellites to deliver mobile services in hard-to-reach areas, reducing no-signal zones and improving resilience during outages.