Brymedia West Africa, one of the firms bidding to take-over Nigeria’s NITEL and MTel is planning to build an overland fiber cable (OFC) from the Nigerian state of Katsina through to Tunisia.
The source said the overland fiber cable would pass through two countries instead of 13 countries. This will be achieved with the aid of tails to be laid into land-locked countries, such as Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
Sources close to the project said that Telecom Italia, one of the biggest operators in Europe, has already indicated interest to land the overland fiber cable into mainland Europe.
The sources further disclosed that the proposed cable would outperform existing cables, like the SAT-3, and the upcoming Glo-1. The overland fiber cable is estimated to be half as expensive as SAT-3 or Glo-1, allowing savings to be passed on to customers via lower tariffs. Read the rest of this entry »
The Nigerian government has decided that the country’s GSM network operators will not be allowed to buy the mobile assets of state-owned NITEL when it is eventually privatized. Although the government was originally looking to sell the company as a single entity, the government has now agreed to split the company into its component divisions and sell them separately.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday refused the request by Transcorp to stop the resale of 51% of NITEL and its mobile arm, M-Tel. Transcorp had initially acquired the shares, but 
Etisalat Nigeria, the country’s newest GSM mobile network operator, has announced that it has passed the one million subscriber mark – less than nine months after the company launched its services in Nigeria.
Mobile operator, Zain, and Ericsson have entered a five-year strategic managed services agreement under which Ericsson will operate Zain’s nationwide GSM/WCDMA networks in Nigeria. Under the agreement, Ericsson will be responsible for the network operations, field operations, including optimisation, third-party vendor management for Zain’s GSM/WCDMA networks, and business support systems.
Lars Lindén, President, Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa, says the agreement will deliver significant financial and operational efficiencies for Zain over the five-year term. “Managed services is one of the fastest-growing areas in telecoms and Nigeria is demonstrating strong growth and increased levels of investment and competition,” he says. “The synergies between the two companies will ensure best-in-class network stability and market support.” 
