" ITREALMS: Celtel reiterates to expand network

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Celtel reiterates to expand network

Pan African mobile operator, Celtel International has said that continuous expansion plan is to the ultimate benefit of its teeming growing subscribers on the continent.

The telco cited the instance of spending over US$80 million to improve network coverage and capacity last year in Uganda, even as its Nigerian operation has reiterated its resolve to better service offering.

Speaking on the expansion plans of the telco, chief executive, Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Bayo Ligali noted that they are intensifying network and capacity expansion programme.

He recalled that Celtel Nigeria introduced last year a number of measures aimed at improving its service quality and tackling many of the common problems responsible for poor quality of service in the country including epileptic power supply, theft of telecom facilities, lack of a robust national transmission backbone, and security threats.

Mr. Ligali also announced recently that Celtel is now better ready to tackle a number of these problems in addition to embarking on numerous concurrent major projects to maintain a six months buffer capacity in the network at all levels.

He highlighted that the projects were intended to facilitate the company to offer its customers greater value and better cellular experience as well as empower more Nigerians especially those resident in underserved communities including the rural areas where the company is currently pursuing a combination of job creation, wealth creation and new distribution programmes.

Equally, outlined was some of the projects being executed by Celtel to include transmission capacity building project, fibre optic leasing project, coverage expansion plan, generator swapping scheme, and transformer installation programme.

Others are a national network monitoring centre project, consumers contact points expansion programme, and soft switches installation projects.

Champion Infotel recalled that late last year the company signed $130 million turnkey transmission capacity enhancing contract signed with Nokia Siemens Networks and a $70 million deal with Motorola for a comprehensive network expansion in the Southern part of Nigeria.

The deal with Motorola, it was gathered entail that the global equipment supplier will deploy its latest Motorola Reach GSM solutions, including EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) capability for mobile data, and will provide comprehensive network expansion planning, integration, support and optimization services to Celtel as it extends network coverage to a growing subscriber base in this densely populated and strategically important oil-producing region.

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