Telecom

Telcos Preparing for Next Frontier in Service delivery

Published

16 years ago

October 19, 2009

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The liberalization of telecommunications sector of the country’s economy some nine years ago has witnessed a lot of transformation and challenges mostly associated with developmental stage in evolution of telecommunications in any society especially; one with infrastructural challenges such as is the case in Nigeria.
The sector has managed to surpassed such problems as government ownership of a monopoly telecommunications company, government funding of telecom infrastructure development, slow pace of network rollout, long waiting line for services and consumers limited to only one service provider among others. Today, Nigeria has become one of the fastest growing markets in the world for mobile communications.
It was not all rosy for the operators and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) the regulatory body in the first phase in development of the sector as they had to address problem of interconnectivity, effective competition, monitoring, compliance and enforcement as well as consumer education.
Having addressed these teething problems to greater percentage of success, telecommunications sector is now preparing to face the next frontier of the developmental process.
The next frontier
The question that arises is what are the expectation of both consumers and operators for the next frontier in this developmental process? This was explained by Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman, NCC, that Nigerian operating companies are paying rather high bandwidth charges for satellite links in the country. This he said has discouraged extensive use of the satellite as alternative medium for long distance transmission requirements.
These high charges have prevailed in spite of the fact that the Nigerian business represents over 60% of the African business portfolio for a number of the International Satellite Organisations.
He emphasized the need to open up discussions on how to drive down the charges perhaps, by consolidating the requirement on a national basis and using that to negotiate better bandwidth prices.
“This is especially critical at this time when satellite can be employed to bridge the gap, while the roll out of the terrestrial alternatives is being implemented,” he said. This issue will be addressed in the next frontier as Glo 1, MainOne and West Africa Cable System will soon come on stream to complement South Altantic Undersea Cable (Sat-3). These initiatives are expected to provide enough bandwidth that will reduce the cost and over dependent on satellite.
National fibre optic ring project initiated by Globacom has reach 80 percent completion as well as those of MTN, and Zain will as reduce the high cost of network rollout even as NCC has expressed its readiness to ensure that such important transmission facility is shared by operators.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is one of the features in the next frontier of development in telecommunications sector. However, some operators have adopted and are currently implementing outsourcing as the way to go in the emerging next phase of development in the sector. Outsourcing is the transferring of certain business functions from internal staff to outside contractors. Outsourcing commonly is applied to non-core functions, such as accounting, information technology, human resources, facilities management, fleet management, parts manufacturing, payroll, press relations, and real estate management for reasons that include lowering costs, avoiding liabilities, and allowing management to focus on the core business. Outsourcing also is an excellent way for management to shift or even avoid responsibility.
A recent report published by Analysys has emphasized the benefits of judicious outsourcing of business processes by telecommunication companies. According to the report, telecom companies need to have a relook at their outsourcing policy, and be open to agreements with third party outsourcing firms in areas that were formerly considered "core" concerns. By redefining their outsourcing outlook, companies can leverage the benefits of cost cuts, flexibility, and profit growth.
There are some key factors that telecom companies must consider in shaping their outsourcing policies, such as their market positioning, strategy, internal expertise and current efficiency. The Analysys report looks into the possible benefits that can be derived from outsourcing, and also the risks involved in handing over management of business processes to a third party. There is also evidence that outsourcing can help operators to achieve significant cost savings.
Number portability
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has indicated its preparedness to implement Number portability in the sector as part of next phase in the development of the sector. Number portability is a telecommunication network function, which allows subscribers to switch services, service providers, or locations without changing their telephone numbers. Near-term number portability is typically implemented by existing telecommunication services such as remote call forwarding. Long-term number portability can be implemented under the advanced intelligent network (AIN) platform. Portability is possible in fewer countries with respect to cellular service. There are restrictions, however. For example, it is generally not possible to port a number across landline and cellular domains. Neither can numbers be ported across countries.
The Dominican Republic is the most recent country out of over 30 that have implemented number portability; it did on September 30, 2009. It is the second country in the Caribbean to launch NP after Puerto Rico, and the fourth country in Latin America to have fixed and mobile NP. Brazil and Mexico launched its NP last year, while Panama has had fixed line NP in place for several years but does not have mobile NP.
The benefits of number portability are seen not necessarily in the amount of people porting to other operators but in the fact that operators are obliged to up their game and focus on quality service and customer retention. That obliges them to keep investing in their networks.
José Magana, analyst with Pyramid Research, reiterated that view, saying that experience in other markets shows that few numbers end up being ported and the benefits lie elsewhere.
"Even though number portability may not end in a lot of numbers being ported, it moves competition to other things like efficiencies and offering good quality services, offering better handsets. We’re positive that the DR’s move into number portability will be important and benefit customers," Magana said.
Service assurance
In the extraordinarily competitive telecom sector, customer satisfaction is the ultimate metric of success. The surest path to a strong business bottom line is assuring that customers receive the highest appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) across multiple applications and delivery mechanisms. At the same time, however, isolating and resolving technical problems across a complex telecom infrastructure, and evaluating them in the context of the customer experience, is no simple trick.
As a result, service assurance evolves as a discipline along two paths. First, within service management, growing from rudimentary root cause analysis—based on element managers and low-level network interfaces—to a more sophisticated, integrated and mature function of Operations Support Systems (OSS).
Second, service assurance will grow in relevance across the organization, developing gradually into a key business intelligence source which delivers performance and service delivery analytics to even the highest level of the organizational hierarchy.
Performance management
Just as it has grown and matured, the essential theory and implementation of service assurance will see significant change. The automation of fault management, for instance, will become important when networks reached a level of maturity and complexity that rendered simple readouts useless. An analysis layer will be required, and the fault management sector born.
Similarly, it becomes clear that the robustness of network architectures meant that network fault events will not always translate directly into degraded network performance. Performance management, as a subsection of service assurance, should be created to distinguish performance-impacting faults from those requiring a prioritized response—from lesser faults.
These two systems—fault management and performance management—have come to represent different views of network integrity and, considered as a whole, comprise a fairly comprehensive view of network robustness.
Are operators prepared?
Having gone pass different operating and environmental challenges in the course of service delivery, telecommunications operators have shown some level of preparedness for the next frontier in the developmental process of the telecommunications sector. Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations have revealed that most of components in the next phase are initiated by operators, such as undersea cable initiative, outsourcing and collocations of infrastructure. More so, industry watchers are of the view that the most important aspect in the next level rest on number portability which assert some level of responsibility on the operators that will require performance management and service assurance.
They however, expressed optimism that most of the operators in the country have their parent company or its affiliate operating in countries that have reach the level at which the country’s telecommunications sector is moving to, which will afford them the opportunity of adjusting their operations fast to meet with the expectations of the new frontier.

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Telecom

Bharti Airtel Crosses 650m Users

Published

2 days ago

April 3, 2026

Ebere Melum-Nwogbo

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Sunil Mittal led Bharti Airtel has crossed the 650-million customer mark globally, fortifying its position as the world’s second-largest telecom operator by mobile subscriber base, as per a regulatory filing by the telecom operator.

“According to GSMA Intelligence, Bharti Airtel is ranked second globally by mobile customer base, with operations spread across India and Africa,” the filing said.

Commenting on this milestone, Gopal Vittal, executive vice chairman, Bharti Airtel, said: “Achieving the milestone of 650 million customers to be the second largest operator globally is a great responsibility for us to serve our customers better every day,”

He added that the telco strives to raise the bar on innovation, reliability, and experience so that every customer interaction is an opportunity to earn trust and deliver value connection.

Currently, Airtel India serves around 368 million mobile customers, meanwhile over 179 million users have been plugged into its subsidiary Airtel Africa spread across 14 countries.

Its mobile money platform, Airtel Money reached more than 52 million customers.

Additionally, the telco serves around 13 million homes with high-speed internet services and over 15 million through its Digital TV offering.

With operations spanning 15 countries and network coverage reaching over two billion people, analysts say that the latest milestone is a testimony to the natural curve of evolving from a telecom operator into a broader digital services provider.

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Telecom

NCC Insists Telcos Must Compensate Subscribers for Poor Quality of Service

Published

3 days ago

April 2, 2026

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has insisted that telecommunications operators must compensate subscriber for poor quality of service after a facility tour of major telecommunications operators in Lagos yesterday.

NCC Insists Telcos Must Compensate Subscribers for Poor Quality of Service

The team comprises of Chief Idris Olorunnimbe the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), EVC, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and other stakeholders visited MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel Nigeria.

Earlier this week, the commission directed Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide compensation to subscribers whose network quality of service experience is below specified targets within certain locations.

In a statement signed by Nnenna Ukoha, head, Public Affairs Department, NCC, the commission noted that its position is that subscribers should not be made to bear the full burden of service disruptions where operators fail to meet prescribed standards of service delivery.

Speaking after the facility tour the EVC, said: “We are in a situation where Nigerians are yearning for better service, but better service requires infrastructure. We are not where we want to be or where we need to be, but from what I’ve seen today, I am reassured that the operators are continuing to invest. I urge Nigerians to be a little bit patient while these investments are made, so that we can address the infrastructure deficit that is required to improve service for Nigerians.

“I wasn’t expecting that a tour like this would change that directive. We looked at it and we said the fairest thing to do was for subscribers to be compensated. This is not to say that the operators have not tried. Service has improved. The data shows that our demand is also increasing at a rate faster than the infrastructure is being built. So Nigerians have to be a little bit patient. From what I’ve seen today and all the work that has been done, I’m confident that gap will be close shortly”.

Chief Idris Olorunnimbe, chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), added: “From what we have seen, and what has been done. We have been told in detail what is to come. And I mean, just like the EVC said, all we need is a bit more patience, better service, deeper penetration is assured based on everything that we’ve seen, and everything we have heard.

“It’s also important to commend our operators. The infrastructure that we’ve seen is comparable with any infrastructure from any telecom operator anywhere in the world, and Nigeria is not behind, and based on what we’ve also seen in terms of their plans for expansion, Nigeria will always be able to compete with any other country in the world.

” More so, drop calls are not deliberate. They are caused by a few things. One of it is fiber cut and attacks or vandalization of towers and other infrastructure. But now, it has reduced. We have seen they’ve shown us data today that shows a significant reduction. It will continue to reduce. As the critical national infrastructure program deepens and we’re also about to introduce an accountability framework of “when fiber is damaged, you must fix it”. That way we think that people will be more responsible with their constructions that breach telecom infrastructure. Then we can keep those incidents to the barest minimum, drop calls would also reduce.

“However, when calls drop, the networks also lose so it’s not in their interest for your calls to drop or for you to experience frustration when you use the service, because the more reliable it is, the longer you spend on it, the longer you spend on it, the more money they’re able to make. So, they are also doing their best in terms of ensuring that these incidents are reduced to the barest minimum”.

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Telecom

NITDA Urges Joint Action to Drive Nigeria’s Digital Innovation

Published

3 days ago

April 2, 2026

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has underscored the importance of collaboration between government institutions and emerging startups as a catalyst for Nigeria’s digital transformation and national development.

Speaking at the Nigerian Satellite Week 2026 in Abuja, themed “Harnessing Space Technology for an Extraordinary Nigeria,” Inuwa urged stakeholders to embrace partnerships as a pathway to innovation and impact.

“Take a good step, and you can make a difference,” he said, emphasizing the need to translate ideas into tangible outcomes through collective effort.

The NITDA boss, represented by the Director of Stakeholder Management and Partnerships, Aristotle Onumo, during his presentation on “Enhancing collaboration between government agencies and emerging start-ups”, outlined four guiding principles for driving transformation: enabling the ecosystem rather than controlling it; prioritising networks over institutions; developing talent while supporting innovation and adopting practical solutions; and focusing on platforms rather than isolated projects.

To illustrate the power of digital innovation, Inuwa shared the story of a rural farmer whose productivity challenges ranging from unstable rents to failed loans were overcome through access to digital tools and networks. He explained that such incremental interventions can scale into broader economic gains, ultimately contributing to national infrastructure like satellite systems.

“This is the power of space technology, and it shows why events like this are so important,” he noted.

Highlighting the evolving role of space technology, Inuwa observed that startups are increasingly driving innovation across telecommunications, navigation, security, and cloud services. Once dominated by global superpowers, the sector is now emerging as a key economic driver, with Nigeria’s “Sunrise Packet” projected to contribute over $1.5 billion to the economy by 2030.

“Innovation without adoption is wasted,” he added, stressing the critical role of government in enabling start-ups to scale through supportive policies, infrastructure, and incentives.

According to him, developmental regulation should focus on creating markets, orchestrating ecosystems, and delivering public value rather than stifling innovation. He pointed to several initiatives supporting the growth of Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem, including the Digital Start-Up Act, Idea Hatch, and the National Digital Leadership Programme, all designed to empower young innovators and connect them to global opportunities.

He further highlighted platforms such as GITEX Africa, GITEX Nigeria, and Digital Nigeria, which provide visibility for start-ups and attract investment, partnerships, and mentorship.

Inuwa concluded with a strong call for collaboration among government, start-ups, non-governmental organisations, and investors, describing Nigeria’s youth as the country’s greatest asset.

“If we are going to create a digital Nigeria, we must collaborate,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Tijani, described Nigeria’s satellite infrastructure as central to the nation’s digital future.

“Nigeria is the only West African country with its own satellite. NigComSat provides critical connectivity and resilience, benefiting not just Nigeria but the entire region,” he said.

Tijani disclosed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the acquisition of NigComSat-2A and NigComSat-2B, a move expected to significantly enhance the country’s space capabilities.

He stressed, however, that infrastructure alone is not sufficient.

“What truly matters is how we leverage this technology to improve agriculture, education, security, and business operations,” he said.

The Minister also highlighted key government investments, including a ₦12 billion digital economy research cluster fund under Project Bridge, which will support academics and researchers nationwide. He added that Nigeria is expanding its digital backbone through 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables, nearly 4,000 telecom towers in underserved communities, and new satellite deployments to strengthen regional connectivity across countries such as Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and the Republic of Benin.

“The talent, ideas, and energy are all here in Nigeria. It is up to us to turn them into real outcomes for our people and the economy,” Tijani added.

The Nigerian Satellite Week continues to provide a strategic platform for collaboration among government, start-ups, academia, and the private sector, fostering innovation and reinforcing Nigeria’s leadership in Africa’s digital and space economy.

Welcoming participants, the Managing Director of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Jane Nkechi Egerton-Ideyen, said Nigeria’s space programme is entering a new phase marked by deliberate and focused growth.

She pointed to strengthened institutional capacity, expanding partnerships, and clear economic gains, noting that the agency’s revenue grew from less than $650 million in 2023 to over $2 billion in 2025. She attributed this surge to key reforms, new commercial deals, and increasing demand for satellite broadband services across the African continent.

Egerton-Ideyen also disclosed that Nigeria has launched seven space assets in just over two decades, adding that the country is shifting its focus from prestige-driven initiatives to practical outcomes—enhancing connectivity, improving livelihoods, and promoting inclusive development.

She further revealed that more than 500 young Nigerians received training in satellite technology within the past year, while over 50 startups have benefited from NIGCOMSAT’s accelerator programme.

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