Globacom, Nigeria’s second national carrier, on Thursday signed a $750 million (N119 billion) contract with Chinese telecommunications infrastructure provider, Huawei, as part of a new effort to strengthen the capacity of the network. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed between the two technology companies yesterday, will see Globacom embark on a complete network overhaul, with a view to providing better mobile services to its over 25 million telecoms subscribers. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mohammed Jameel, group chief operating officer (GCOO) of Globacom, said the optimisation project would be completed in the next six months.
Jameel said the company had been searching the right vendor to actuaries its mordenisation project, and that Huawei was chosen as a preferred vendor for the contract. Industry players say the market focus of the telecoms industry is shifting from voice to internet and data services, which are of high value for business, education, social and entertainment purposes. As part of the deal, Jameel pointed out that Globacom would expand its in-land fibre infrastructure to enable it carry more internet traffic across the length and breadth of the country. “We are upgrading the fibre transport network from 10gigabytes to 100 gigabytes.
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“This capacity will cater to our subscribers for ten to 15 years”, he added. “As we mark our ten years of operation in Nigeria, we have decided to concentrate on upgrading our network with the latest, best-in-breed technology, which can provide a bullish network that can provide innovative services to our customers.” The implementation of the contract, according to Jameel, would mean that every element of the network, ranging from Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), Mobile Switching Centres (MSC) and transmission infrastructures, among others, would be upgraded to put the network in good stead to meet the ever-growing demands of telecoms subscribers.
“The $750 million contract will translate into upgrading of all the network elements, and covers the cost from the time the project will start till the time it will be commissioned,” he said. In his comments, David Fann, vice presdent, Huawei West Africa, said, “ The two firms are similar. Glo is from Nigeria, which is an emerging market in Africa while Huwaei is from China, also an emerging market. “We are, therefore, pleased to receive the contract. By the time we finish the network upgrade, Globacom will be ready for Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. After obtaining the license to provide LTE services, only a software commission would be required to migrate to the new platform.”
