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Nitel’s new owner to roll out 4G infrastructure in three cities in March, according to press report, creating 4,000 jobs.
Defunct Nigerian telco Nitel could be on the verge of a return to the market, with local press reports claiming it is due to start rolling out network infrastructure in March.
Natcom, the consortium that took control of Nitel and its mobile arm Mtel last year, will start installing lines in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, Nigerian newspaper The Punch reported on Monday.
The paper said it obtained a copy of a presentation given by Natcom chairman Olatunde Ayeni to the Nigerian House of Representatives’ Committee on Commercialisation and Privatisation, in which he said the telco will offer LTE services to meet demand for mobile broadband.
He also said the group has invested US$1 billion in Nitel/Mtel since taking control of the company, and that the new network rollout will create 4,000 jobs.
The telco has 40 MHz of spectrum in the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands that was previously used to provide 2G mobile services.
Natcom emerged as the preferred bidder for state-owned Nitel in December 2014 and paid the final instalment in the $252.5 million purchase price in April 2015.
However, the sale process was not without controversy and later in the year Nigeria’s new government ordered an investigation amid concerns that the telco was deliberately undervalued.
The Committee on Commercialisation and Privatisation is undertaking that investigation.
Despite The Punch’s claims, the timing of Nitel/Mtel’s return to market remains uncertain. A separate press report last year claimed the telco would launch 4G services under the Ntel brand in November in the same three cities mentioned above. However, nothing happened following that report.
