The recent launch of another ultra-high frequency telecommunication service by NATCOM Development and Investment Limited represents Africa’s real march towards cheaper internet accessibility that is very likely to reshape the continent’s telecoms market. Correspondent, SAM NWOKORO, profiles the man behind the project
t was a dream long set on high emotion, to launch Nigeria into the enviable status of a digital society. Talking about a nation where the citizens take information and communication technology (ICT) for granted; a nation where cyber literacy would be as affordable as chicken pea, where even the grey hairs in the remote countryside would just load broadband credit as effortlessly as hauling a ball of eba into their food canal.
For now, this attitude is still the exclusive preserve of the upwardly mobile. But by the time ntel, which is rising from the ashes of NITEL/Mtel, begins to unleash its tentacles to ICT-savvy Nigerians in not-too-distant time, mobile service in the country, and in fact Africa, would become as cheap as sand, as efficient as breathing, and as historical as the launch of the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) itself some 15 years ago.
NATCOM Development and Investment Limited’s revolutionary landing into the nation’s telecom industry recently has left nobody in doubt that it is, to Nigeria’s subscribers, the much-awaited promise.
No rosary, no canticles. It just landed. It is reportedly the nature of the brains behind NATCOM led by forward-looking Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kamar Abass.
Right from day one, when the NATCOM consortium made daring bids for whatever remained of the former state-owned first national carrier – which operated Mtel, the NATCOM guys had never pretended; they were rather focused on what they were out to achieve.
Resuscitating the national pride
What fascinates in the emergence of NATCOM as another national carrier is not only its upper crust state of preparedness. It is more fundamentally its determination to see that the once first national carrier, with all its assets – some almost about to slide into obsolesce – was retrieved from the hands of portfolio scavengers. The latter, it seemed, were really not out to make any serious investment in keeping the 0804 dial in orbit. This new gang, stakeholders believe, are in the fray to revamp the national carrier on real time.
It is gratifying that Abbas and the guys at NATCOM boldly launched out Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) network, using the latest satellite and longest submarine fibre optic cable capable of carrying calls and broadband traffic to virtually any part of the world. Launching out on day one in Nigeria’s most populated cities – Lagos and Abuja – with ready 600 base stations and over 2,000 sites, gives a glimpse of the manner of service it is set to offer. Already, 200 kilometres of fibre optic transmission cable has been laid in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt for seamless network connectivity.
It is the latest 4G technology with multi antennae sites, Abass told the media while announcing the launch to Lagos.
“We are rolling out physical sites in two sites on our 900MHz and 1,800Mhz bands to launch VoLTE in April 8. We have signed agreements with trade partners and fulfilled all licence authorisations and payments, and we are up-to-date. There are no impediments to our launch,” he stressed.
According to him, the new consortium plans to spend $1 billion in the next four years in the project.
“NATCOM has completed construction of Tier III datacentre as well as reactivation of SAT 3 submarine international fibre optic cable. Last year, NATCOM paid $252.52 million to acquire the assets of defunct First National Operator (FNO) to begin commercial operation on its mobile network.
“Despite the growth of the telecom sector in Nigeria, which has seen voice subscription from less than 60,000 in 2001 to over 147 million as at 2015, broadband usage has only grown by 25 per cent,” he said.
Full of optimism, Abass gave more insight into the future of NATCOM and how it is going to up the ante in the industry.
His words: “Over the next four years and half, the total number of mobile broadband customers alone will be greater than all the customers that have come into the market on mobile since its inception. In other words, we are at a point where a major transformation is in the making.
“You will see 168 million broadband customers coming into being between now and the end of 2019, which is more than all the mobile customers both narrow and broadband that we have seen in the last 15 years. That sounds like an enormous transformation. When it comes to supply of broadband services, we are unique because we have more spectrum which can deliver more throughput than any network available today and potentially any network in future.”
Wholesome turnaround
NATCOM acquired the core telecom assets previously owned by Nitel/Mtel (Nigeria’s national fixed and mobile operator) in a guided liquidation process supervised by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and a high court-appointed liquidator. This process of liquidation was completed in May 2015 when the Nitel/Mtel assets were wholly transferred to NATCOM after a payment of $252.25 million.
The CEO of NATCOM is obviously driving this upcoming behemoth with a vision that is probably anchored on foreknowledge. Having observed the dynamics of the telecom industry in a decade and half, the politics of the regulatory environment, the behaviour of the Nigerian consumer and unending complaints for fair deal, no doubt, the team at NATCOM is not coming to the ring unprepared for the ups and downs in it.
Abass and the big boss of NATCOM, Chief John Tunde Ayeni, have certainly have become the next in the line-up of Nigeria’s increasing transnational players whose operations in the global telecom arena will go a long way in shaping our world further. In this era of sustainable development, when the United Nations expects non-state operators in the business world also to imbibe the philosophy of fair game and responsiveness to stakeholder sentiments, Nigerians would not expect NATCOM and her drivers to play below.
However, there is the confidence in the heart of Nigerians that given the yawning gap in modern info-tech services compared with what obtains in other parts of the world, NATCOM would not labour in vain.
Subscribers in Nigeria are expected to grow to 222 million by 2020 and up to 400 million by 2030, according to latest estimates by World GSM organisation. But beyond this, at least Nigerian youths in this era of unemployment would have an estimated 4,000 or even more jobs openings between now and 2019, according to NATCOM.
Prior to joining NATCOM, Abass was the Country Manager at Ericsson Nigeria and a member of Ericsson’s leadership team in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, he was Vice President, Marketing and Business Development at Ericsson’s Western European division.
He held senior management positions at Vodafone Group, Price Waterhouse Coopers (pwc), and British Telecom.
He is a Bachelor’s degree holder in Civil Engineering from the University of Lagos (UNILAG); M.Sc. in Transportation Planning and Management from the University of Westminster, UK; and MBA from Cranfield University, UK.