MTI wins 146-site deals

•Unveils 3 subsidiaries

MTI Nigeria Plc has won over 146 deals for the execution of cell sites nationwide. This will run across four network operators, just as it unveiled three subsidiaries into the nation’s market, MTI Engineering, MTI UniTower and Mass Power.

Vice chairman, MTI Nigeria Plc, Mr. Frank Kirkitie gave these insights at the investor’s forum organized by the company in Lagos, last weekend.

These operators cut across MTN, Zain, Multi-Links and Siemens Networks, aside from the one being executive across the sub-region for the likes of Globacom, MTN and Zain.

Confirming this, the Managing Director, MTI Engineering, Mr. Selwyn Watkins, said that his own subsidiary, which focuses on co-location build out, won 91 sites deal out of the 500 Greenfield sites for MTN Nigeria, which amounts to 18 per cent of the total project.

MTI Engineering, he said, won 121 from Zain out of the 400 basic co-location build out, which is the 30 per cent and Multi-Links has awarded 10 sites with a further 20 sites depending on performance, while Siemens Network has given the company 24 sites with awaiting 50 sites.

Also, Watkins said MTI Engineering presently handles fibre optic and copper, as well as currently maintaining Glo fibre lines across the country.

Welcoming participants to the forum, MTI chairman, Prince Chibudom Nwuche, noted that the forum was to update core-stakeholders of the company with its foreign partners deals and avail them the opportunity to understand the path the company is taking, especially the team from the United States-based Span LLC led by the chief executive, Mr. Garald Zadikoff.

The delegation, he said, is made up of key secondments from Span LLC to manage the joint venture, MTI-Unitower Services Limited, which includes a Director, MTI-Unitower Network Services Limited, Mr. Steve Wiseman, CEO, MTI-Unitower Network Services Limited, Mr. Andre Claeys, chief technology officer (CTO), Mr. Luk Jonchheer as well as chief marketing officer (CMO) Geoffrey Critchon, MTI-Unitower Network Services Limited.                             

ITRealms Online recalls that MTI Nigeria Plc in the bid to reposition itself for global competition, recently signed the final shareholder’s agreement with Span LLC, thereby formally creating MTI-Unitower Network Services Limited, as a joint venture company, to provide and manage tower infrastructure for wireless telecom operators.

Nwuche said that this deal with Span would enable MTI to the setting up a world class telecoms infrastructure company made up of a management and technical operatorship with knowledge and expertise in co-location telecommunication infrastructure networks, in addition to run, operate and manage MTI Unitower Network Services Limited on a day to day basis.

The first part of the agreement with SPAN was endorsed in June 2008.

Equally, ITRealms Online, notes that MTI Plc had acquired an infrastructure sharing and co-location license from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),for its joint venture company, MTI-Unitower Network Services Limited, to facilitate its commercial operations in tower leasing, infrastructure management and asset acquisition and lease back, in the telecom infrastructure sub-sector.

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