Chinese company Huawei will assist the upgrade and expansion of Globacom’s telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria as part of a recent agreement signed by the two companies worth US$750mn
Muhammed Jameel, chief operating officer of Globacom, said the new deal would enable the telecommunications firm to embark on a holistic overhaul of its network with a view to providing better services to more than 25mn of its subscribers across the country.
Jameel commented, “In preparation for our 10th year anniversary in Nigeria, we have decided to concentrate on upgrading our network with the latest technology, which can provide a bullish network that can provide better services to our customers.”
Globacom’s chief operating officer explained that under the contract, Huawei would upgrade every element of the network, ranging from base transceiver stations (BTS), mobile switching centres (MSC) and transmission infrastructures, among others.
“In the contract, BTS, microwave radio facilities and MSC will be upgraded… it will also include back-hauling of the total network with a view to delivering a total network with the most modern equipment,” Jameel said.
“We are upgrading the transport network from 10 gigabytes (GB) to 100 GB. This will enable more data services,” he added.
According to Jameel, the upgrade of Globacom’s infrastructure network will be complete by the end of 2013, with Huawei expecting to complete the upgrades within six months.
“The US$750mn contract will translate into upgrading of all the network elements and covers the cost from the time the project will start until the time it will be completed,” he said.
David Fan, vice-president of Huawei West Africa commented, “We find it a great honour to sign the contract. The two companies are similar. Globacom is from Nigeria, which is an emerging market in Africa, while Huawei is also from an emerging market in China.
“We are, therefore, pleased to receive the contract and by the time we finish the network upgrading, we would have also made the Globacom network ready for a long term evolution (LTE) technology network. All they need to do is to obtain the licence to provide services on the 4G network,” he noted.
