Brymedia, TNZI in technical deal

One of the ‘reserved bidders’ in the just concluded sale of the first national carrier, the Nigerian Telecommunications Plc (NITEL) group, Brymedia Consortium has affirmed that it met all the requirements in the bidding process, just as it confirmed the technical deal with Telecom New Zealand International (TNZI).

Confirming this to ITRealms Online, the chief executive of Brymedia West Africa Limited, Mr. Adrian Wood, said his firm submitted its bid for all of the NITEL and MTel assets on Friday, February 5, 2010.

This submission, he said, was in full compliance with the Request For Proposal (RFP)
issued by the Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises on September 24, 2009 and is supported by seven local investors and reputed telecom giant, TNZ.

“The consortium is supported by seven Nigerian investor groups, and is pleased to disclose that Telecom New Zealand International did indeed agree and are still in agreement to participate as the Consortium’s international technical partner, as required by the terms of the RFP,” he declared.

According to him, the TNZI letter submitted with the Brymedia Bid documentation is a confirmation that the deal has been sealed between the two firms for the success of the partnership.

TNZI, he noted is the national operator in New Zealand, and is an enterprise with wide experience, millions of customers and significant assets in its worldwide operations.

“In their home market they have operations in fixed line, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Third Generation (3G), wireless broadband, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) broadband, Optic Fibre Cable (OFC) transmission, microwave and satellite transmission, broadcast, pay TV, and managed services.

“They were one of the very first national operators to be privatized and were the first ever foreign operator to be granted an international gateway license in the United States of America (USA) in the early 80s,” he said.

Additionally, Mr. Wood said TNZI carries two per cent of the world’s international long distance telephone traffic and own 50 per cent of the trans-Pacific Southern Cross undersea OFC as well as the largest portfolio of cable assets in Eastern Europe and Middle East with major voice and Internet Protocol (IP) gateways in numerous countries around the world, even as the telecom operator is financially solid, and listed on the New York (NY) Stock Exchange.

ITRealms Online recalled that Brymedia Consortium had the third highest bid in the BPE’s process for the NITEL privatization.

“We wish to congratulate BPE and its advisors BNP Paribas for completing a long and difficult, stewardship of the technical and financial bids for NITEL and MTel,” he submitted.

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