Mr Kamar Abass, chief executive officer of Ntel, the new fourth generation long term evolution (4G LTE) network operator, talks with CHIMA AKWAJA on plans to roll out the most advanced telecoms services to Nigerians.
Any regulatory issues with NCC?
The report of an issue is completely inaccurate. We have been working with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to achieve all of the regulatory approvals that we need and that work continues. But as far as being in the position to launch services to Nigerians as specified in our licences, we have every single clearance that we need.
It is our desire to lead commercially where our customers wish us to lead. We need to do things we perceive that our customers are looking for and we have seen working well in other jurisdictions. The objective of the NCC is to work with operators to facilitate those things and to make sure that they protect the interest of customers.
And so, we are constantly inviting the NCC to push the boundaries in the way they do things, the way they draw certain lines and that dialogue will always continue but I wouldn’t say that there are issues. There is good dialogue and that dialogue is healthy and is the right one. I have worked with regulators in multiple jurisdictions and I find the engagements we have with the NCC to be among the best that I have ever experienced anywhere in the world.
I am quite happy with our relationship, happy with the quality of the dialogue and let me be completely say we are quite happy with the authorisations and licencing that we have today which will enable us launch our network. There are absolutely no impediments.
The report of an issue is completely inaccurate. We have been working with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to achieve all of the regulatory approvals that we need and that work continues. But as far as being in the position to launch services to Nigerians as specified in our licences, we have every single clearance that we need.
It is our desire to lead commercially where our customers wish us to lead. We need to do things we perceive that our customers are looking for and we have seen working well in other jurisdictions. The objective of the NCC is to work with operators to facilitate those things and to make sure that they protect the interest of customers.
And so, we are constantly inviting the NCC to push the boundaries in the way they do things, the way they draw certain lines and that dialogue will always continue but I wouldn’t say that there are issues. There is good dialogue and that dialogue is healthy and is the right one. I have worked with regulators in multiple jurisdictions and I find the engagements we have with the NCC to be among the best that I have ever experienced anywhere in the world.
I am quite happy with our relationship, happy with the quality of the dialogue and let me be completely say we are quite happy with the authorisations and licencing that we have today which will enable us launch our network. There are absolutely no impediments.
Ntel’s Cutting Edge
I think if people understand what it is that we are going to do and what we are doing, there will be no doubts absolutely. Today, we are seeing the very beginnings of a shift from a voice oriented communications market in Nigeria to one that will be dominated by data, by mobile broad band. Today, you have not more than 35 million broadband mobile customers in Nigeria.
In spite of there being more than 154 million mobile active customers, a mere 20-23 per cent of those are mobile broadband customers. Forecasts show that by the year 2020, less than five years from now, there is going to be 229 million active SIMs in this market. Now I don’t mean West Africa, I don’t mean most of Africa, I mean in Nigeria. That is a 50 per cent growth of the total market. But what is more important that less than 30million of those would be on 2G.
In other words, 200 million of the active mobile subscribers in Nigeria will be on mobile broadband. Today just over 30 million, in five years from now it would be 200 million. There is nothing worrying about our ability to sell mobile broadband in a market that is doing seven times over the next five years. It doesn’t have me shaking in my bed, this is for sure.
I think if people understand what it is that we are going to do and what we are doing, there will be no doubts absolutely. Today, we are seeing the very beginnings of a shift from a voice oriented communications market in Nigeria to one that will be dominated by data, by mobile broad band. Today, you have not more than 35 million broadband mobile customers in Nigeria.
In spite of there being more than 154 million mobile active customers, a mere 20-23 per cent of those are mobile broadband customers. Forecasts show that by the year 2020, less than five years from now, there is going to be 229 million active SIMs in this market. Now I don’t mean West Africa, I don’t mean most of Africa, I mean in Nigeria. That is a 50 per cent growth of the total market. But what is more important that less than 30million of those would be on 2G.
In other words, 200 million of the active mobile subscribers in Nigeria will be on mobile broadband. Today just over 30 million, in five years from now it would be 200 million. There is nothing worrying about our ability to sell mobile broadband in a market that is doing seven times over the next five years. It doesn’t have me shaking in my bed, this is for sure.
Difference between LTE-A and other LTE technologies?
Our network is already offering LTE-A today. Two things, there are the whole series of additions you can add to LTE to make it LTE Advanced. What we have is that we have used carrier aggregation technology to bond together with spectrum and allow the spectrum to operate more uniformly and more efficiently. It allows you basically to add five and 15 so you got 20 instead of five plus 15 and that significantly in engineering terms allows you to give better coverage in both your 900MHz and 1800MHz.
The second thing we are doing is we are using multi antenna technology (MIMO) four by four that means that four antennas sending and four antennas receiving and it basically doubles the performance of your two by two antennas and the ability to have your radio system process four by four and carrier aggregation is what LTE-A is about. There are other features, and as they become available we will add them into our network for sure.
Our network is already offering LTE-A today. Two things, there are the whole series of additions you can add to LTE to make it LTE Advanced. What we have is that we have used carrier aggregation technology to bond together with spectrum and allow the spectrum to operate more uniformly and more efficiently. It allows you basically to add five and 15 so you got 20 instead of five plus 15 and that significantly in engineering terms allows you to give better coverage in both your 900MHz and 1800MHz.
The second thing we are doing is we are using multi antenna technology (MIMO) four by four that means that four antennas sending and four antennas receiving and it basically doubles the performance of your two by two antennas and the ability to have your radio system process four by four and carrier aggregation is what LTE-A is about. There are other features, and as they become available we will add them into our network for sure.
Looking at your capital expenditure on infrastructure and all that, what are your projections going forward?
Our forecast is that we will take a total investment of more than $1billion to complete the mission as far as we are concerned, and that is over the next four or so years. Today, we have lain nearly 200km of fibre in metro areas in Lagos, in Abuja and in Port Harcourt. We have acquired a 4G LTE-A core network, the so called evolved packet core. We have also socket switch core elements to facilitate interworking between our own 4G network and 3G and 2G networks.
We have acquired a total of nearly 1,000 cell sites which are in the process of being refarmed, they will enjoy advanced technology features such as carrier aggregation to combine 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum, plus multi antennae technology (MIMO) that allows us to boost coverage, triple our network and boost customer experience. We are doing a great deal already to make sure that from a technology stand point, we are the most advanced network in Nigeria.
Our forecast is that we will take a total investment of more than $1billion to complete the mission as far as we are concerned, and that is over the next four or so years. Today, we have lain nearly 200km of fibre in metro areas in Lagos, in Abuja and in Port Harcourt. We have acquired a 4G LTE-A core network, the so called evolved packet core. We have also socket switch core elements to facilitate interworking between our own 4G network and 3G and 2G networks.
We have acquired a total of nearly 1,000 cell sites which are in the process of being refarmed, they will enjoy advanced technology features such as carrier aggregation to combine 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum, plus multi antennae technology (MIMO) that allows us to boost coverage, triple our network and boost customer experience. We are doing a great deal already to make sure that from a technology stand point, we are the most advanced network in Nigeria.
Number of base stations and other logistics
We have got a total of 600 base stations currently in place to roll out. Certainly people will expect a full voice service, HD voice, crystal clear, super fast call connect times and excellent battery life available from the 4G LTE Advanced network. Over time, we will expand that. We will not stop building our network for the next three to four years so you can expect that to grow.
We see 5G (fifth generation) making an appearance in Nigeria in the future, which of course, we will bring into our network. Through our vendors, we are building a network that is upgradable to 5G. We want to be among the first operator in Africa if possible to provide 5G services. The reason we are doing that is because new technologies always give us the ability to give better services and to use spectrum resources, power resources and so on, more efficiently and these are things that are germane to our commercial survival, so we will embrace them.
We have got agreements with channel partners that are experienced and present today in the market. They do an enormous amount of business for the existing players and we have agreements for them to work with us. We have done all of the commercials with them and frankly now, we are putting finishing touches to the branding work on our stores, vehicles, merchandizing materials, SIM , SIM packaging, point of sale devices, etc. We are working with them very vigorously to make sure we are prepared and we expect to be prepared in good order.
We have got a total of 600 base stations currently in place to roll out. Certainly people will expect a full voice service, HD voice, crystal clear, super fast call connect times and excellent battery life available from the 4G LTE Advanced network. Over time, we will expand that. We will not stop building our network for the next three to four years so you can expect that to grow.
We see 5G (fifth generation) making an appearance in Nigeria in the future, which of course, we will bring into our network. Through our vendors, we are building a network that is upgradable to 5G. We want to be among the first operator in Africa if possible to provide 5G services. The reason we are doing that is because new technologies always give us the ability to give better services and to use spectrum resources, power resources and so on, more efficiently and these are things that are germane to our commercial survival, so we will embrace them.
We have got agreements with channel partners that are experienced and present today in the market. They do an enormous amount of business for the existing players and we have agreements for them to work with us. We have done all of the commercials with them and frankly now, we are putting finishing touches to the branding work on our stores, vehicles, merchandizing materials, SIM , SIM packaging, point of sale devices, etc. We are working with them very vigorously to make sure we are prepared and we expect to be prepared in good order.