NATCOM Development and Investment Limited (trading as ‘Ntel’), would on April 8 commence commercial sales of its 0804 mobile line in Lagos and Abuja.
Ntel recently made its first Voice over LTE call in Lagos. The test VoLTE call was made at Ntel’s new Tier III data centre located on Lagos Island.
Mr. Kamar Abass, CEO while announcing the rollout plan , said Ntel would begin the first phase rollout with the commercial sales of its 0804 mobile line on April 8 in Lagos and Abuja.
He said although the company acquired some base transceiver stations (BTS) from the old NITEL, it also entered partnership agreement with IHS and Helios Towers, builders of BTS and other telecoms infrastructure, to roll out 600 base stations for the commercial rollout in Lagos and Abuja, with plans to extend the rollout plan to Port Harcourt with additional 200 BTS, also known as base stations.
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According to Abass, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecommunications industry regulator, has approved all licence authorisations necessary for ntel to launch its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) network using next generation telecommunications infrastructure for its first phase rollout in April.
He said Ntel had deployed 200 kilometres of metro fibre optic transmission cables in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, for seamless network connectivity during the rollout.
The CEO of ntel also added that ntel had deployed LTE Advanced, the latest 4G technology with multi-antennae sites.
“We are rolling out physical sites in three cities on our 900MHz and 1800MHz bands to launch Voice over LTE come April 8, 2016. We have signed agreements with trade partners and fulfilled all licence authorisations and payments and we are up-to-date and there are no impediments to our launch,” he said.