CHINA MOBILE SEEKS COLLABORATION WITH MTEL Nigeria
2005-07-13 19:12:23 | Viewed 958 times
The Chief Executive Officer of China Mobile, the world’s second largest mobile operator, Mr. Wang Jianzhon, has called for strong collaboration between Mtel and his company in the area of international roaming and experience exchange.
Jianzhon made this call on Friday, 08 July 2005, when he led a team of senior officials of his company on a visit to the headquarters of the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited, Abuja.
He stated pointedly that as the second largest mobile operator in the world, China Mobile has forged a partnership with ZTE in the deployment of robust switches and other facilities for its network operations.
Drawing on the similarity in the pedigree of China Mobile and Mtel, he said that China Mobile was a part of China Telecom, the state owned national telecom operator until 2000 when it was separated. Until 2002, Mtel was also an integral part of the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), the First National Operator.
While noting that China, which is populated by about one billion people, currently has 340 million mobile telephone lines by two operators, he said that China Mobile alone has about 220 million subscribers.
The CEO China Mobile noted as well that the mobile market in China presently has 46 per cent penetration in the sub sector of China’s economy. He made a growth forecast of 500 million mobile lines by 2008.
Providing further statistics, he said that China Mobile processes 800 million Short Message Service (SMS) per day. He stressed that out of the $70 million revenue from the mobile service, China Mobile records 46 per cent of its revenue stream from Value Added Services.
Commending the crop of young management team of Mtel, Jianzhon said that his delegation was on an investment drive to four African nations with Nigeria being the first stop.
In his welcome remark, the acting Chief Executive Officer, Mtel, Mr. Edwin Moore Momife, informed his guests that Mtel was the pioneer mobile operator in Nigeria having kicked off operations in 1996 with the analogue technology.
Admitting that both Mtel and China Mobile share some similarities in their formative ownership, he said that Mtel currently controls only about 11 per cent of mobile market in the telecommunications sub sector of the Nigerian economy.
He, however, he said that with the focused management and the expansion being planned to inject additional capacity to the Mtel network, the company would definitely leap to the front burner of mobile operations in Nigeria.
According to him, with the appropriate investments and the right investment climate being facilitated by the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s democratic government, the telecom industry has blossomed.
Momife said that with the global liberalisation trends, the federal government of Nigeria has commenced the process of selling 51 per cent of the equities of NITEL and Mtel to a core investor.
According to him, the current management in Mtel was putting so much into the company to make it attractive to the prospective investors. He added as well that the management is focused on growth of the company, which currently has an installed capacity of 1.3 million lines and 11 switches.
Declaring that Mtel services are Pan Nigeria, he said that the proposed 4.5 million lines would take the capacity of the company to six million subscriber base. According to him, the additional capacity would help to secure the financial base of the company.
He said as well that the management of the company was also working hard to deploy enhanced data capabilities and Value Added Services so as to expand the financial base of the company.
Momife stated that in the proposed expansion project, which may be implemented pretty soon, Mtel’s core network would migrate to the 3G technology, while the radio system end will be 2.5G.
He said that the migration of Mtel’s network to the 3G platform could be a decision that would mark the turn around for the company’s fortunes.
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