The NATCOM Consortium, owners of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its subsidiary, the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunication Limited (M-Tel) has announced that it has concluded plans to begin to roll out services by November.
According to various media reports, the telecom operator will be rolling out its services on 4G LTE, a platform that is widely touted as being more reliable for telecom services, particularly for data.
NATCOM will roll out in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt in the first phase before extending its reach to the other parts of the country.
According to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, the telecom operator will be operating under name ‘NTEL’ as its marketing brand, meaning Nigeria Telecommunications.
Speaking on the planned rollout of the service by NATCOM, Engr. Lanre Ajayi, President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) said, “It is also an additional network capacity for the country. Their coming on board will help in deepening broadband penetration if they will not concentrate on the perceived commercially viable cities.”
The NATCOM Consortium had emerged as successful bidder for the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and Nigerian Mobile Telelcommunications (M-Tel), as well as SAT-3 after its $252.5 million bid was accepted for the beleaguered national carrier.