Airtel Africa is winding up Airtel Kenya Telesonic Limited, its wholesale internet and fibre subsidiary in Kenya. The unit launched in February 2024 and recorded no revenue in either year of operation.
How the Shutdown Happened
Airtel filed notice at the end of 2025 to surrender its Network Facilities Provider Tier 2 licence to the Communications Authority of Kenya.
- The regulator asked for the physical licence booklet back by January 30, 2026
- Airtel returned it on February 6
- The board resolved to close the company that same day
- The Authority has approved the shutdown
- The Registrar of Companies is now processing deregistration
- Airtel Kenya Telesonic will be struck off the register by December 2026
The Numbers
Financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025 show a net loss of KES 16.1 million, more than five times the KES 2.9 million loss posted in 2024.
Key figures from the filing:
- Accumulated losses: KES 19.08 million
- Total assets: KES 284,275
- Owed to affiliate Airtel Networks Kenya: KES 18.5 million
- Licence write off: the company’s main asset, a network facilities licence originally valued at KES 15 million, was fully written off once the surrender was confirmed
Deloitte and Touche audited the accounts and issued an unqualified opinion, while flagging that the statements were prepared on a liquidation basis rather than as a going concern.
What Telesonic Was Supposed to Do
Telesonic is Airtel Africa’s wholesale fibre arm. It manages more than 75,000 kilometres of terrestrial fibre across the group’s fourteen African markets and holds a stake in the 2Africa submarine cable system alongside Meta, Vodacom and MTN. Khusoko reported in November 2025 that Telesonic had partnered with Nokia to expand this network across East and Central Africa, using Nokia’s DWDM technology to add capacity without laying new cable.
In Kenya, the unit sold high capacity connectivity to internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies rather than individual customers. It competed against Safaricom, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Seacom and MTN’s Bayobab, and did not win business from any of them.
Retail Fibre Is Not Affected
Airtel’s consumer fibre business in Kenya continues as normal. XStream Fibre, the company’s home and business broadband service, operates under Airtel Networks Kenya on a separate licence.
XStream Fibre launched with four plans:
- KES 1,999 for 15 Mbps
- Up to KES 4,999 for 100 Mbps
The service competes with Safaricom, Faiba, Zuku and Poa Internet in a market that grew from 1.3 million broadband subscriptions to 1.86 million over the past year, according to Communications Authority data.
Third Exit in Five Years
Kenya is Airtel’s third African asset exit in under five years.
- 2021: Airtel wrote off its equity in Ghana’s AirtelTigo joint venture and transferred its stake to the Ghanaian government
- 2021 to 2022: Airtel sold tower portfolios in Madagascar and Malawi, 1,229 sites in total, to Helios Towers for a combined 108 million dollars. The Madagascar deal closed in November 2021 and the Malawi deal in March 2022
Nigeria Is Moving the Other Way
Airtel Nigeria Telesonic is expanding while its Kenyan counterpart closes. The Nigerian unit secured National Long Distance, Internet Service Provider and Sales and Installation licences in 2024 and now sells dedicated internet access, international private leased circuits and enterprise voice termination.
Nigeria contributed about a quarter of Airtel Africa’s group revenue in the first half of 2025 at a 56 percent EBITDA margin. Group profit after tax more than doubled to 813 million dollars for the financial year ending March 2026, with Nigeria’s revenue up more than 50 percent to 1.59 billion dollars.
Airtel Africa has not disclosed plans for Telesonic in its remaining thirteen markets. The brand is still listed as active in Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
