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Airtel Africa Leverages Xtelify Data Engine to Revolutionize Field Operations Across 14 Countries

  • Date Icon June 12, 2025
  • Time Icon4 min read

Overview 

Airtel Africa is one of the continent’s largest and fastest-growing telecommunications providers, serving over 166 million customers across 14 countries. In the last year alone, Airtel Africa rolled out 2,583 new network sites and added approximately 3,300 kilometers of fibre, further strengthening its digital backbone and expanding access to reliable, high-speed connectivity for millions across urban and rural regions. The company’s network now spans tens of thousands of sites and 75,000 km of terrestrial fibre, supported by ongoing investments in 4G and 5G technology, and a growing portfolio of digital and financial services. This scale and ambition position Airtel Africa as a catalyst for digital inclusion and economic growth across some of the world’s most dynamic and diverse markets. To maximize the value of this expanding infrastructure, Airtel Africa partnered with Xtelify to implement the Data Engine (DE)—a platform designed to unlock granular, real-time insights and enable targeted actions at every network site. 

Challenges 

As Airtel Africa continues to scale, the organization is addressing several direct operational challenges to ensure it delivers on its promise of high-quality, reliable connectivity: 

  • Site-Level Visibility: With thousands of new sites coming online, providing field teams and managers with granular, real-time insights for each site remains a top priority to ensure proactive performance management and rapid response to local issues. 
  • Adapting to Market Dynamics: The pace of change in Africa’s telecom markets demands agile, data-driven decision-making. Quickly aligning network investments and operational actions to shifting customer needs and competitive pressures is a continuous focus. 
  • Timely Reporting and Analytics: As operations scale, traditional manual reporting can slow down the identification of issues and limit the speed of improvements. There is an ongoing need to automate and unify analytics for faster, more effective interventions. 

Solution:  

To address these challenges, Airtel Africa deployed Xtelify’s Data Engine (DE), a platform purpose-built to enable granular actions for network sites using a 1km x 1km grid-based approach. CDE seamlessly integrates with Groundhog Technologies’ advanced geolocation analytics, empowering Airtel Africa’s teams to move beyond broad, reactive measures and instead drive targeted, data-backed interventions at the micro-market level. 

Key Features Driving Granular Network Actions: 

  • Grid-Based, Site-Level Analytics: CDE divides Airtel Africa’s vast network footprint into precise 1km x 1km grids. Leveraging Groundhog’s geolocation technology, this segmentation provides micro-level visibility into site performance, customer experience, and network utilization. As a result, field teams can prioritize upgrades, maintenance, and investments where they will have the greatest impact. 
  • Real-Time Data Integration and Automated Reporting: The platform ingests and processes live data from network elements and field operations, providing both central and field teams with instant, actionable insights through unified dashboards and automated alerts. 
  • AI-Driven Decision Support: Embedded AI models analyze real-time and historical data to detect anomalies and recommend optimal actions for each grid, ensuring field teams can anticipate issues and act rapidly.

“We are excited to have Xtelify as a core technology partner, enabling us to deliver meaningful digital advancements and enriching the lives of millions across Africa.” 

— Jacques Barkhuizen, Group Chief Information Officer – Airtel Africa 

 Impact 

Challenge  Before   After  
Site-level visibility  Manual data collection; limited granularity  Real-time, grid-based analytics accessible to all teams 
Adapting to market dynamics  Weeks-to-months lag in responding to local changes  Instant insights and agile workflows for rapid, localized response 
Timely reporting & analytics  Siloed, inconsistent reporting; reactive maintenance  Automated dashboards and AI-powered alerts for proactive action 
Operational collaboration  Fragmented data across sales, service, and network  Unified data model and collaboration, enabling faster execution 

 

What’s Changing for Airtel Africa 

  • Field teams now access granular, real-time site data for smarter, faster decisions. 
  • Network investments and interventions are prioritized at the micro-market level for maximum impact. 
  • Proactive, data-driven management leads to improved network reliability and customer experience. 
  • Airtel Africa is positioned to sustain its leadership in connectivity and operational excellence across the continent. 

Conclusion 

The partnership between Airtel Africa and Xtelify, powered by the Data Engine and enhanced by Groundhog’s geolocation analytics, is redefining network site management at continental scale. By unlocking granular, real-time insights and enabling precise, data-driven actions, Airtel Africa is setting new standards for operational agility, customer experience, and growth across Africa’s fast-evolving telecom landscape.