Etisalat Plans $500m Investment in Network Upgrade

Steve Evans, chief executive officer, Etisalat Nigeria, has said that the telecom company has gotten approval from its shareholders to invest $500 million to upgrade its network to ensure good service delivery.

He said part of the investment will be channel toward providing 3G services as demand for data is rising in the telecom space.

He expressed readiness of Etisalat for Mobile Number Portability recently launched by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),.

According to him, “Etisalat launched its MNP campaign on June 3 six weeks after the system was launched by NCC because we are preparing our network for quality service delivery as well as to ensure that the porting process is smooth with operators playing by the stipulated guideline of the system. We are now going to spend more money because the process is smooth and we are comfortable with it”.

He noted that the quality of service on Etisalat network has significantly improved that ensure worthwhile experience by their subscribers.

Evans added that as at May 31 Etisalat recorded a high performance in NCC’s key performance indicator audit report where it scored 98% in the Call Success Set-up Rate (CSSR), less than 1% in the drop call rate, and 0.3% on the Signaling Congestion with NCC’s approved target at 1%.

The company’s boss however, disclosed that several thousand telecom subscribers have ported into Etisalat more than the number that has left the network.

He assured their subscribers that Etisalat runs promo in a responsible manner that does not adversely affect its network.

It would be recalled that Etisalat last year was rated the best telecommunications service provider for good Quality of Service (QoS) by the Nigerian Telecommunications Company  based on the Quality of Service Key Performance Indicator audit report released by the regulator.

The KPIs measured by the Commission included Call Set Up Success Rate (CSSR), Call Completion Rate (CCR), Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate (SDCCH), Call Data Rate (CDR) and Traffic Channel Congestion With or Without Handover (TCHcon).