MTN Nigeria Launches Optic Backbone
2006-10-16 00:00:00 | Viewed 1711 times
MTN Nigeria has launched a $300 million National Fibre Optic Backbone, as part of measures to ensure unlimited transmission capacity of its network.
At the launch yesterday in Abuja, MTN Group CEO, Phuthuma Nhlekho, said "the transmission backbone alone cost about $300 million in the whole network, but this is just one tenth of our investment, because without the backbone, we are limited in terms of penetration that we have in the country that can guarantee us reasonable level of service."
He said the transmission backbone MTN was unveiling is the biggest in West Africa, and one of the largest in the whole of African continent, adding that "there is no undertaking of these magnitude by any other private telecommunications company in Africa."
Dr Pascal Dozie, Chairman MTN Nigeria, in his welcome address said the Fibre Optic Network is the latest technology in telecommunications and has phases one and two completed, which constitutes a total of 2,420 km of fibre optic network across the nation's land mass, while phase three of the project will add 1,116km of additional fibre to the project, thus making it a total of 3,536km in length.
He reiterated that the network will lead to a reduction in congestion and drop calls, ensure more accurate customer billing information, ensure the overall improvement of of MTN's quality of service which will lead to improved call and speech quality. It will also enable MTN to build and expand its sites. According to him, with facilities in excess of 5,000 times the capacity of MTN Nigeria's current digital network, the new fibre optic network has the ability to handle over five million calls, data and multimedia transmission all at the same time. The unlimited transmission capacity built into the fibre optic network can support the seamless transfer of subscribers network profile from one location to the other.
He also disclosed that MTN by the end of June 2006, had successfully increased its core network capacity to support over 12 million subscribers, from the 11 million supported in December 2005. He added that MTN is currently, the largest telecommunications company in Nigeria with about 85.9million people representing 73.3% of the nation's population within areas covered by MTN. He added that MTN was able to achieve this feat through connectivity from 2,310 base stations and 30 mobile switching centres with each facility built to international standards.
Dr Babafemi Anibaba, the Minister of Commuications in his comments stated that the reforms of the Federal Goverment in the telecommunications sector has brought rapid growth. He pledged that the Federal Goverment will continue to provide an enabling environment that will attract investors to the country. Anibaba also called on MTN to deploy part of its profits into extending rural telephony to the rural areas. He also commended MTN for using and training over 60 percent of Nigerian engineers on the network rollout.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission NCC, Dr Ahmed Joda in his remarks stated that the significant growth recorded in the telecoms sector was made possible by the policies introduced the Federal Government. He stated that before the reforms of the government, the sector was grossly under-developed with less than 400,000 thousand lines which has increased to over twenty five million in five years.The Vice President of the Federation,Atiku Abubakar,represented by Prince Akomode in his comments stated that the growth recorded in the telecommunications sector since government embarked on its reforms is miraculous with MTN as its flagship. He thanked MTN for doing a good job and prayed that it will continue to grow from strength to strength.
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