" ITREALMS: Telkom votes N12.6 trillion on Multi-Links’ expansion

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Telkom votes N12.6 trillion on Multi-Links’ expansion

Telkom South Africa, the new owners of the pioneer Private Telephone Operator (PTO) and Unified Access compliant in the country, Multi-Links Telecommunications Limited, has announced its resolve to invest a total of $100 billion (about N12.632 trillion) on the network in the next five years.

Champion Infotel recalls that recently South Africa’s fixed-line operator, Telkom, acquired 75 per cent stake in Multi-Links for US$280 million, about N35.3 billion.

Disclosing this latest development, the new chief executive officer, Multi-Links, Mr. Justin Ramayia who led other management team to address the media in Lagos, said that the current owners of the company, Telkom South Africa is determined to expand its operations in Nigeria in all the states of the federation with voice and data services.

Mr. Ramayia also said the issue of quality would be sustained as far as the network is concerned.

“There is need for continuity and Telkom would continue with the progress made so far,” he said.

Mr. Ramayia equally said that Telkom has instituted a market research on the modules to take in repositioning the company, just as the telcom expects to grow its subscriber-base to 1 million before the end of its next financial year.

According to him, the new management would build its operation based on what he described as triple bottom line, namely people, profit and social responsibility.

“As much as we do business, we must focus on the people,” he assured.

He further lamented that almost every major operator is building its own network infrastructure in the country, which has affected SAT-3, noting that Multi-Links under Telkom is determined to do business with any entity that is willing to relate with the company.

Mr. Ramayia noted that Telkom currently has presence in South Africa, Kenya, Code d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nambia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.

Telkom, he said, would soon erect a replica of its Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Nigeria to serve its West Africa market, just as there would be an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skill transfer for Nigerians.

Mr. Ramayia informed that Telkom would be deploying its security expertise to assist Nigerian security agencies, especially in Lagos State.

Multi-Links prides itself as the first to introduce the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA 2000 1X) technology in the country and have been consistent in its deployment of state-of-the-art wireless technology.

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