Operator Airtel Chad is reportedly planning a XAF50 billion (about US$90 million) investment plan aimed at improving network quality and expanding digital connectivity across the country.
The investment will be rolled out in phases. Local news reports say that within one month Airtel intends to expand microwave connection capacity, replace generators that have reached the end of their useful life, boost radio capacity on 89 4G sites, upgrade router ports in the capital N’Djamena to 100G, and modernise former state-owned telecom operator SOTEL's fibre network.
By January 2026, Airtel aims to deploy fibre to connect sites in Massakory in the southwest, Ati and Dop-Dop in the centre of the country, and Abéché in central-eastern Chad, to bring radio services to an additional 306 sites, and to launch the third phase of metro fibre deployment in N’Djamena.
By June 2026 it aims to deploy 114 new sites to extend coverage to underserved areas, expand 4G to 170 additional sites, and extend fibre connectivity to link N’Djamena in the southwest and Sarh in the south through Dourbali and Bousso in the southwest. It will also replace the core network supplied by Ericsson with new Huawei equipment.
This ambitious plan has been presented to the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP), but there is a wider context to this annoucement. Earlier this month we reported that the government of Chad had ordered mobile operators Airtel and Moov Africa to speed up plans to connect to its national fibre optic backbone. The same news item noted ongoing consumer complaints over outages, unstable internet and low service quality – despite high tariffs. There is also far from universal coverage.
Regulator ARCEP has expressed concern about these quality of service (QoS) issues but also highlighted slow progress in updating subscriber identification.
In fact Airtel has been targeted specifically in the past over QoS. In August 2023 we reported that the operator had been fined XAF5 billion (US$9 million) for failing to meet QoS requirements.
On this occasion, to ensure accountability, Airtel has committed to submitting monthly progress reports on the execution of its investment programme. Local press reports add that ARCEP launched its 15th national audit on service quality on 15 September.
