Mohamed Jameel, COO at Globacom, told local reporters that the company will be upgrading 500 base stations and sites in Nigeria, in a bid to improve data coverage.
“We are converting all our base stations to data base stations,” Jameel said.
“The upgrade will have positive effects on the economy, more jobs will be created and many players in the sector will benefit from our gesture.”
The upgrades form part of Globacom’s strategy to enable every Nigerian access to the internet, and come at a time where market watchers have highlighted a need for greater telecoms infrastructure in the country.
Digital entertainment entrepreneur Jason Njoku told the Financial Times that he has never had any doubt about the demand in Nigeria.
“It is just a question of the infrastructure holding it back,” Njoku said.
Akinola Sawyerr, COO of Lagos-based software provier Vanso, also concluded: “Nigeria is a data-hungry country.”
As a result of this demand, Globacom is looking to move towards an all-IP transmission network in the county and Bisi Koleosho, head of operations at the company, said that the benefits are enormous.
“The bandwidth here is unlimited; it will reduce call drops, increase throughput per subscriber,” Koleosho told reporters.
“An IP network will allow for faster and more reliable voice and data services.”
It seems the need for better infrastructure has not gone unnoticed by the Nigerian government and earlier this year, Globacom was one of three operators fined for poor network quality.
