Don't Miss


Home   >   Tech & Telecoms   >   Telecoms   >   2.3GHz spectrum service ready in January

2.3GHz spectrum service ready in January

By on October 28, 2014

Service on the 2.3GHz spectrum, which is expected to boost service quality, will be available for telecoms consumers as from January 2015, it was learnt on Thursday.

Bitflux Consortium made this known through VDT Communications, the promoter of the 2.3GHz licence won by Bitflux in February this year.

Other members of the consortium are BitCom and Superflux.

Bitflux was the firm that beat Nigeria’s telecommunications company, Globacom to the 2.3GHz spectrum licence. It paid over $23.2m (about N37.1bn) to the Nigerian Communications Commission to pick the wholesale wireless broadband service licences.

The Chief Executive Officer, VDT Communications, Mr. Biodun Omoniyi, stated that VDT-Bitflux had a plan to deploy Long-Term Evolution technology, while taking off in January next year.

He said, “Bitflux will be rolling out in three major states in the first instance and these include Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt in January, 2015. Already, our vendors are deploying equipment for us and necessary installation will follow.

“We know that people are looking at us with excitement to champion broadband services provisioning. We are fully aware of this and our plans are moving as planned.”

Omoniyi, who is also a director at the consortium, said that the company was building basic redundancy into the network, saying, “This will provide seamless experience for businesses across the country.”

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, had recently stated that Bitflux might not be able to roll out services soon, as it would require funds and technical logistics to do so after paying “heavily” for the spectrum.

He had said, “Telecoms infrastructure investment is not as simple as many see it. We just issued the spectrum auction to the company this February. The company, after paying for the spectrum, will need to look for money, get vendors, do deployment, do testing before beginning to offer services. This process takes time and I can tell you that it has been working within schedule.”

However, Omoniyi said VDT was at the forefront of providing quality telecoms services to various sectors in the country, and noted that the company had recorded success in the past 13 years of doing business in Nigeria.

“Within the last two years, in particular, our connected clients have grown about 60 per cent and even more than that. In terms of locations, we were present in 20 states as of 2012; but today, we are in the 34 states, with the exception of Yobe and Ebonyi,” he said.

As part of preparations to roll out service in January, he promised that VDT would have extended its Point of Presence to all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory before the end of the year.

On VDT’s market shares in key sectors, Omoniyi said, “We have up to 85 per cent of the banks on our networks, and in the insurance sector, we have about 50 per cent. Also, we have impressive performance in manufacturing, hospitality and public sectors.”

He added, “Also, our carrier business and service providers business are still there. Although, we are far from being perfect, staying close to our customers and making them the centre of our activities has been a wonderful experience.”

 

[Punch]