Celtel Nigeria has said that its embarking on aggressive coverage expansion of the network in pursuit of its 2007 goals of providing significant coverage for portions of Nigeria’s over 150m population.
This is coming as the telco has given a boost to Idols West Africa, which it’s a major sponsor by establishing viewing centres across the country.
Celtel also said this would offer more Nigerians the opportunity to watch the popular reality television (TV) talent show, Idols West Africa.
Public Relations, Specialist at Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Emmanuel Otokhine said, that by rolling out an average of 100 base stations monthly across the six geo-political zones of the country, and is speeding up the completion of it North-south microwave transmission backbone.
He quoted the Chief Executive Officer, Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Bayo Ligali, as confirming in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel while addressing key functionaries of the business at a management strategy meeting in Lagos, weekend.
Mr. Ligali noted that the objective is to cover 95 per cent of the total population of the country by mid-next year.
He explained that the investment by the MTC/Celtel Group in Celtel Nigeria has begun to yield fruits with the completion of numerous equipment supply contracts and roll-out agreements.
He pointed out to one of this plans as being the $50 million contract the telco recently signed with Motorola to expand its GSM network within the South-East and South-South regions of the country.
Under the turnkey arrangement, he said, Motorola would deploy its latest Motorola Reach Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) solutions and provide comprehensive services. Whereas the expansion would afford Celtel to increase its subscriber capacity, extend its coverage into new areas and improve network quality.
Meanwhile, Celtel has advanced plans to establish viewing centres across the nation for the Idols West Africa.
According to the Head, Public Relations, Events and Sponsorship at Celtel, Mr. Emeka Oparah, several viewing centres have began to emerge in various cities, mostly in university campuses, nationwide to serve the populace the chance to watch their idols perform in the on-going reality TV show, Idols West Africa.
Champion Infotel recalls that Celtel Nigeria is headline sponsor of the Idols West Africa project, which commenced in February this year.
Presently over 40 university campuses across the country have been designated to host the viewing centres.
The centres will be equipped with Plasma television sets, Digital Satellite Tv (DSTV) decoders and satellite dish and 6KVA power generating sets.He also said that viewing centres were introduced to boost public engagement in and association with the talent hunt project, which offers Nigerian youths a shot at fame and fortune.
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