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Glo will lead broadband revolution in Nigeria – Jameel

By BusinessNews Staff on May 13, 2014

Telecoms company, Globacom, has said it will be the biggest player in Nigeria’s broadband market following the Federal Government’s agenda to revolutionise broadband access in the country.

The Group Chief Operating Officer of the company, Mr. Mohamed Jameel, who said this while addressing newsmen in Lagos on Friday, stated that the ongoing network expansion, swapping of old base stations with new ones and the modernisation of existing infrastructure would significantly position the company to be able to deliver world-class services.

He said Globacom would become Nigeria’s biggest telecoms company in terms of its capacity when it completed its ongoing nationwide network overhaul.

Jameel said, “Having played a prominent role in the first telecoms revolution in the country, Globacom is now ready to lead Nigeria into the second revolution, which will be an explosive Information and Communications Technology broadband growth across Nigeria in the next three decades.

“Globacom will be the biggest player in the second telecommunications revolution in Nigeria. We are converting every cell site in Nigeria into broadband. We regret any inconveniences our subscribers might have experienced in the process of the unprecedented network upgrade and expansion.

“Nigerians will enjoy the massive transformation on the Glo network after the expansion and modernisation exercise.”

The Globacom network, according to him, will have 90 per cent 3G coverage, thereby making it possible for Glo data subscribers across the country to experience significant service enhancement.

He said that by the time the project was completed in the second quarter of the year, Globacom would have totally swapped old components on the network across the nation with state-of-the-art network software and hardware.

In the same vein, the Head of Operations, Globacom, Mr. Bisi Koleosho, said, the swapping of cell sites had been completed in Abuja, Oyo state, Osun State, Ogun State, AKwa Ibom state, Port Harcourt, and several parts of Lagos including Lekki, Ikorodu, Agbara and Ota.

The exercise, he explained, was almost completed in Surulere and Ikeja, adding that efforts had been intensified to cover the remaining parts of the country.

Telecoms equipment vendors, Alcatel Lucent, Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson are the partners working on the Glo network upgrade.

The national operator had embarked upon the network upgrade as part of its 10th anniversary celebration in August last year. It said then that the expansion project was to accommodate the movement of subscribers into the network. The increase in subscriber figures, the company explained, had informed the need to expand.

He disclosed that the project covered swapping, upgrade, and overhaul of network infrastructure, as well as building of new switches.

He said the project also include the construction of additional 4,000 kilometre of optic fibre cable to complement the company’s existing fibre optic facility, which is among the most extensive private fibre networks in Africa.

According to him, the company’s existing 10,000km optic fibre network is also being expanded with IP MPLS and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing network to provide capacity and route protection to ensure constant connectivity.

[Punch]

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