More than a decade after digital telephony came to Nigeria, access to telecoms services has been liberalised across all the strata of the society. While active subscribers’ figure is approaching 135 million, teledensity has reached 92.42 per cent. However, poor quality of service has remained a big challenge. LUCAS AJANAKU X-rays the network enhancement efforts of Globacom, the only wholly indigenous operator in the country.
For the telecommunication sector, it has been a story of gloom, boom, doom and the country is earnestly hoping for the return to the era of boom, particularly in quality service delivery.
The moribund Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) signposted the era of gloom when the national carrier served about 150 million Nigerians with 400,000 connected lines as at October 2000. The nation, however, ecstatically eased into the era of boom with the licensing of global system for mobile communication (GSM) to operators.
Millions of Nigerians, who never thought they could own their private telephone lines, became proud owners of phones.
For Nigeria, the boom has not only been in the access to telecoms service, it has also been in the massive inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI). The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Eugene Juwah, said the sector has attracted FDI above $25 billion. According to him, the potential of the industry to grow the economy is almost limitless.
Juwah is, however, forthright to admit that despite the investments by the operators, quality of service (QoS) levels have been unsatisfactory. Indeed, the excitement had since paled into pain for many subscribers with dropped calls and other inconveniences. Infrastructure of virtually all the key players had buckled under the pressure exerted by the ease of access to services. They were overstretched. The NCC had to wield the big stick to restore the era of boom when most telcos fell short of meeting all the key performance indicators (KPIs) it set with the buy-in of the telcos.
Juwah has equally come out on several occasions to admit that there are a number of peculiar challenges that make it difficult for operators to operate at optimum level in Nigeria. Some of these challenges include inadequate power, equipment vandalism, equipment theft and multiple taxation, which leads to a situation wherein Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) belonging to telecom operators are routinely shut by various agencies of government.
They are huge challenges that he, however, said the regulatory body was working with the supervising ministry and relevant agencies and arms of government to resolve.
Justifiably so, the operators have been lampooned by subscribers who want nothing but good quality service delivery. The operators knew that notwithstanding the challenges, they must rise above the occasion to satisfy their customers to remain in business. They have repeatedly assured the nation that they are doing all within their capacity to significantly improve telecom service. Several billions dollars have been poured into the sector by the operators who are eager to make a positive change as soon as possible.
Nigeria’s only national telecom carrier, Globacom has, particularly, been outstanding in this regard. The operator has tried to make its own network expansion and modernisation project as transparent as possible. The operator called journalists together at the commencement of the project and has called journalists together again several times since then to update them on the progress made.
On one of such occasions, the Group Chief Operating Officer of Globacom, Mr. Mohamed Jameel, said the project was being embarked upon to put the issue of flagging quality of service to rest. He said the company was determined to achieve this even if the task looked daunting.
He recalled that Globacom commenced operation with no support infrastructure in 2003 and built one of the fastest growing telecom infrastructure in Africa. He said Globacom delighted in doing what many might consider impossible.
Jameel recalled that Globacom shattered the myth surrounding per second billing in Nigeria by introducing it at its launch, when other operators insisted it was impossible. He added that the company had since gone ahead to blaze the trail in other areas.
He said Globacom launched commercial operation with 2.5G network, which made it possible to provide General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and products and services running on the infrastructure which was then the most advanced in the country, such as mobile internet, mobile banking and BlackBerry.
He said Globacom was the first to introduce 3G Plus in Nigeria and, indeed, West Africa. This enabled the telco to provide video calling, high speed internet (HSI), mobile TV and video-on-demand to its subscribers.
Globacom remains the only operator with an individually-owned submarine cable called Glo 1, which has started addressing Africa’s internet bandwidth problem.
He added that Glo was the first and only operator to introduce the beautiful and environment-friendly Palm Tree base stations, which adorns the Lagos Lagoon, among other places across the country.
Why build new network?
When the telco clocked 10 last year, it began a massive network expansion project being implemented by leading technology infrastructure companies, Huawei, Ericsson and ZTE. The project entailed swapping of old base stations (BTS) with new ones and the modernisation of existing infrastructure.
According to Jameel, the swapping of old BTS in Lagos is 90 per cent complete. He said the project is expected to be completed before the end of this month, promising that subscribers would witness improved network experience upon its completion.
“Ogun State swapping is fully completed, while Edo State is about 60 per cent completed. The swapping project has also started in neighbouring Delta State. This is in addition to Abuja, Oyo, Osun, and AkwaIbom states. Port Harcourt and several parts of Lagos including Lekki, Ikorodu, Agbara and Otta have also been completed,” he said, promising that by the time the project is completed, it will have swapped old components on the network across the nation with state-of-the-art network software and hardware. “In short, we are building a sparkling new network,” Jameel enthused.
Its Head, Operations, Bisi Koleosho, who briefed the media on updates, said the telco would soon achieve its target of 90 per cent 3G coverage, the first in the industry, making it possible for its data subscribers to experience significant service enhancement. The project is expected to be completed this year.
Service improvement is being felt in various parts of the country. Koleosho promised that the improvement would continue.
Speaking during an interactive session, Jameel said: “Having played a prominent role in the first telecom revolution in the country, Globacom is ready to lead Nigeria into the second revolution, which will be an explosive ICT broadband growth across Nigeria in the next three decades.
“Globacom will be the biggest player in the second telecommunication revolution in Nigeria. We are converting every cell site in Nigeria into broadband. Nigerians will enjoy the massive transformation on the Glo network after the expansion and modernisation exercise.”
The project covers swapping, upgrade, and overhaul of network infrastructure, as well as building of new switches and construction of additional 4,000 km of optic fibre cable (OFC) to complement the existing facility, which is among the most extensive private fibre networks in Africa. The company’s 10,000km OFC network is also being expanded with IP MPLS and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) network to provide capacity and route protection. It will also ensure constant (24/7) connectivity.
The massive project, according to Jameel, also includes the setting up of three new call centres in Port Harcourt, Abuja and Lagos to take care of vast increase in subscriber figures and upgrade of the radio access network which will ensure that data customers enjoy unparalleled speed and reliability.
He said the brand new network Globacom is building would be congestion-free, with reduced call drops. The Lagos microwave network is also being transformed into a full internet protocol Network (IPN) to meet future data requirements.
International services
Glo says it is enhancing its reputation as one of the biggest voice and data carriers in Africa. It has deepened its roaming services offering with the addition of over 100 leading network partners across the world in the last one year. Subscribers to Glo, who are on the postpaid platform, can enjoy seamless roaming services in almost every part of the world as Glo has interconnectivity arrangements with over 430 partners in 176 countries. Thus, Glo is the network in Nigeria with the largest international postpaid roaming footprint.
Glo has, similarly, extended its prepaid roaming to more destinations as the service is available in most major destinations where it is partnering with over 80 leading networks. Jameel added that Glo’s GPRS roaming is also one of the largest in Africa. The service, which enables data roaming for mobile phones, laptops, iPads, Blackberry and android handsets, is available in 115 countries comprising all major travel destinations.
Having pioneered per second billing (PSB) and led the revolution to make telephony affordable to many Nigerians, expectations are high that Glo will make the nation proud again with its new network.
