Airtel now shows the network masts near you in its app. Here is how to report bad service

Airtel Open Network is a new map inside the MyAirtel app that shows the network masts near you, which ones are being upgraded, and where new ones are planned. Airtel Nigeria launched it on Friday, 30 October 2026, and it also gives you a direct way to report poor calls, slow data and buffering videos from the exact spot where they happen.

Airtel Nigeria added a network map called Open Network to the MyAirtel app on 30 October 2026. You can see masts near you and report poor service from the spot where it happens.

In plain terms: instead of shouting into a general customer care line, you can now see whether the problem is near a site Airtel is already working on, and send a report that carries your location and the kind of problem you have. That gives Airtel’s engineers something specific to check.

These are the steps Airtel described at the launch. Menu names can change as the app updates, so look for the closest match.

The feedback section in Open Network sends your report to Airtel Assist. You can report four kinds of problems: poor voice call quality, slow internet, no internet at all, and videos that keep buffering.

Airtel asks for a few details with each report. Have them ready so your complaint is useful:

A tip that costs nothing: note the time each time the network fails over two or three days before you report. A report that says “data stops every night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. inside my flat” is far easier to act on than “network is bad”.

The map separates three kinds of sites: active sites that are serving the area now, active sites that are being upgraded, such as a move to 5G or more capacity, and planned sites that are not working yet. Where Airtel has a date for a planned site, the map can show when it is expected.

Not by itself, and Airtel says so. Its chief executive, Dinesh Balsingh, told the launch that Open Network is meant to help the company “listen better” and “understand problems more precisely”, not to repair faulty sites on its own.

Dr Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), attended the launch and said, “Ultimately, customers will judge this initiative by how useful it is to them.” A site near you does not guarantee strong service either. Crowded networks, problems on the link that feeds the mast and other technical faults can still slow you down.

The downside: the feature lives inside the app, so people without a smartphone are left out for now. Airtel has also not said how quickly it will respond to reports or whether you will get updates on a fix.

Network quality has been under pressure across the industry. In a statement from his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, President Bola Tinubu welcomed the launch and said the success of telecom investment “must ultimately be measured by the experiences of Nigerians who depend on these services”. The statement said Airtel has grown from about 15,000 sites two years ago to more than 17,000, including over 1,050 new sites, 657 of them 5G, in its 2025/26 financial year. You can read it in the President’s statement as published by Voice of Nigeria.

Update the app today and check the sites around your home and office. If a nearby site is marked as under upgrade, give it some time. If it shows as active and your service is still poor, file a report with the details above and keep any reference number you are given.

On MTN? These five phone settings that stop data finishing fast work on any network. It is also worth knowing what happens when a phone number is recycled, and how to protect your mobile money from SIM swap fraud.

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