" ITREALMS: Celtel improves network in South West with N85b

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Celtel improves network in South West with N85b

LEADING telecommunications operator, Celtel Nigeria, has said its aggressive network development would gulp the sum of N85 billion in the South Western region of the country.

Disclosing this in Lagos, General Manager, South West region, Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Akin Braithwaite, said the telco has embarked on aggressive network infrastructure development within the South West region aimed at providing its customers with better quality of service and extending its services to more communities in the region.

Mr. Braithwaite also revealed that expansion is estimated to cost the company $65 million, about N85 billion in 2007, to improve network capacity, expand its network coverage, and bring more communities within its coverage map as well as grow its capacity to provide excellent customer care service.

Mr. Braithwaite, who disclosed this at the regional media roundtable by the telco, noted the impact of Celtel’s massive investment in the improvement of its network would be fully felt in the coming months.

He stressed that improvement and expansion have already been witnessed in several communities in the region.

According to him, the changes being envisaged include significant improvement in network availability, reliability, general service quality, product availability, and capacity to provide good customer care service to the company’s customers and expansion of coverage to more areas.

Additionally, Mr. Braithwaite said, Celtel’s latest investment has resulted in increase in the number of Base Stations in the regions; a growth rate of 12.14 per cent and a significant growth in number of communities covered so far and include Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Kwara, Osun, and Ekiti States.

He said Celtel is currently building a new Master Switching Centre (MSS) with 3G compatibility for the region and a new backbone to link South South region through Benin City, stressing, “When fully operational the backbone will boost Celtel’s transmission capacity considerably, making it possible for customers to communicate.”

The Celtel official said the mobile operator is desirous to satisfy the communication needs of its customers. “We are determined to cover more communities and empower more Nigerians to communicate. We are also working on improving products and services distribution system with a view to making them readily available to our cherished customers.

“The level of human capital in the South West region has been improved to enable us serve our customers efficiently in line with Celtel’s regionalization policy. Our region is now better focused commercially, technically and operationally to accomplish the company’s target of rolling out service aggressively, becoming more customer-focused and cost competitive.

“Celtel is poised to becoming the flagship mobile operator in Nigeria, a network that constantly responsive to the yearnings of its customers. We have demonstrated this with the introduction of Unity Tariff with offer of free monthly SMS, special low midnight call rate, lower international call tariff, same flat rate for calls to all networks and lower SMS rate” he said.

In his address to the occasion, the Chief Operating Officer, Celtel, Mr. Lars Stork, said that the company’s parent company, the MTC Group, is investing massively in Nigeria to enable the mobile operator embark on the ambitious and aggressive network rollout to boost the robustness of its network.

Mr. Stork added that Celtel’s is committed to realising its objective of making life better for its customers, and giving the company the competitive edge in the market place.

The roundtable is part of a series of activities aimed at introducing the regional management team to the media in their respective regions.

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