The Nigerian Communications Commission demanded better service from its mobile operators last year, and it appears MTN has now taken the first steps to comply. It is widely reported the regulator threatened Nigeria’s three major operators; MTN, Globacom and Bharti Airtel, with restrictions against signing new customers unless they improved mobile network services.
Akinwale Goodluck, a spokesman for MTN Nigeria said: “The investment will relieve congestion and improve the quality of the network.”
It is expected the investment will be mainly focused on 2G and 3G development in the country, and address an upgrade to MTN’s power generators.
Bloomberg newswire reports MTN made a similar $1 billion investment on its Nigerian network in 2011, but it proved insufficient to satisfy regulators. The commission reported MTN Nigeria had 40 million users on its mobile network in June 2011.
Capacity will be reporting on what moves MTN’s major competitors in Nigeria will take to respond to this investment in the coming year.
