4,000 more base stations for Nigeria

The chief executive of Celtel Nigeria, Bayo Ligali, disclosed Celtel Nigeria's strategy in Lagos and said that before the end of 2007, the telco had in excess of 3,100 base stations countrywide and has mopped up plans to add 1,000 more this year.

"To ensure permanent buffer capacity we had built 3,100 base stations by the end of 2007, and planning for additional 1,000 sites in 2008," he said, adding that this was a leap forward considering the fact that in 2006 when the telco was renamed Celtel, it had a little over 1,000 base stations.

He told reporters that Celtel has contracted Nokia-Siemens Networks for the building of a 4,000km backbone to be completed by the first quarter of 2009.

Bayo Ligali also said that Celtel plans to double switching capacity from 10 to 20 in this year, noting that base stations are imperative to increasing both coverage and capacity on the network this year.

He also shared the telco's strategies to bring world-class QoS to subscribers on the network, noting that they are striving to ensure that this is accomplished.

He however pointed out that Celtel Nigeria was very sorry for the poor state of services on its networks and promised that the telco will do anything possible to make sure its network services reached world-class standards.

"So, let me apologise on behalf of all of us at Celtel Nigeria for falling short of the expectations of our customers," he said.

He reeled out the immediate and long-term measures being put in place by Celtel in the country to manage the challenges, stressing that the core objectives of the telco's business plan this year is centred on network quality and customer service.

Ligali also pointed out five key factors that would lead to Celtel's success and they are network capacity, network resilience, network reliability, power, security and operational performance.

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