Kamar Abbas

Nigeria’s newest telecom player, Natcom Development and Investment Ltd on Tuesday announced that it would roll-out 4 Generation (4G) services in three cities in Nigeria before the end of 2015.

The Managing Director of Natcom, Mr Kamar Abass also disclosed that the company would launch its services in Lagos, Abuja and Port-harcourt simultaneously, and the firm would be known as ”NTEL’’.

 Abass made the disclosure at the 6th edition of the annual NigeriaCom, an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) event organised by Informa Telecoms and Media.

Natcom Development and Investment Ltd is the company that acquired the assets and liabilities of the former national carrier NITEL and MTEL.

The NATCOM boss  said that the company would ride on the 4G network to show its relevance in the Nigerian telecommunications market.

Abass said that there were still ample spaces in the nation’s marketplace for new SIMs; hence, Natcom as a new entrant had many opportunities.

”Nigeria is in extreme ‘data hunger’, with just 92.7 million active internet users, as at June, 2015, but the surprising issue is that only 27.6 million of the users access the internet on 3/4G networks.

”It shows that more than 65 million go on the internet on 2G, which means that we are losing the broadband race by using 2G network, since 4G is the heart of broadband.

”Our story is that of pure 4G network, with high speed broadband and better technology. We see ourselves as offering Nigeria the key ingredient, with the deployment of 4G,” he said.

Abass said that the assets acquired from NITEL included cellular spectrum/microwave frequencies, telecom operating licences, international submarine cable and cell towers.

He said that the company also acquired fibre and duct network (including Right Of Way), prime buildings and satellite earth stations.

Mr Adam Thompson, the Head of Content, Africa and Middle East, Com World Series, Informa Telecoms and Media said that the theme of the event centred on the next phase of connecting businesses and lifestyles across the digital economy.

Thompson said that the two-day conference and exhibitions would support and foster development of stronger networks and affordable access to allow the digital economy to flourish.