When was nitel established in nigeria

However, it was clear that rather than move the company forward, it took NITEL several steps backward. A House of Representatives probe into the deal unravelled grisly details, which pointed out to the fact that due diligence was not followed in arriving at the decision to saddle Pentascope with such a big challenge.

The Federal Government later constituted a Technical Board of Management for the distressed telecoms giant. The board was responsible for the administration of NITEL and its subsidiary, M-Tel, pending the completion of the core investor sales process.

The company failed to pay up after the BPE granted it several extensions. But again, this attempt failed. This strategy was adopted by the council after due consideration of other options and in the light of the previous failed attempts to privatise NITEL and MTEL through Strategic Core Investor Sale and Negotiated Sale strategies and the huge liabilities of creditors of over N billion.

Under the guided liquidation strategy, it was decided that all the core assets and business undertaking of NITEL and MTEL would be sold as single or multiple lots to a qualified bidder by the liquidator under the general guidance of the National Council on Privatisation NCP.

With years of neglect, most of the infrastructures belonging to the company have become dilapidated. For Mtel, the assets sold to NATCOM are the licences and the spectrum, national right of way, the Mtel GSM network including mobile switching centres, base station controllers, base transceiver stations and the general packet radio services.

Others are the analogue TACs system and other core assets. But it is not just about launching the service, NATCOM will be expected to break new grounds with all the assets at its disposal and the deliver best of services to Nigerians. It is worthy of note that since inception, NITEL was only able to provide subscriber lines for a population of million until the arrival of the GSM communication system in But now in the hands of private managers, the highest level of efficiency is expected and of course, the company is expected to now recover all the lost grounds in market share.

At the handing over to NATCOM, former Vice President Namadi Sambo, who was the head of the National Council on Privatisation NCP had urged the new core investor to resuscitate the companies and ensure improved service delivery to Nigerian consumers, adding that the reform and privatization programme of government is focused on the economy and ultimately the greatest good for the greatest number of Nigerians.

Interestingly, the Chairman of NATCOM Consortium, Olatunde Ayeni, had also given a peek into what the consortium was up to when he noted that a new and strong brand has entered the Nigerian telecommunications market, adding that NATCOM is resolved to deliver a unique brand that would wow and delight the Nigerians customers and market. And which telco or service provider has the much needed cross-country infrastructure to deliver this auspicious tool of economic growth?

Definitely none for now, which is why the telecom regulator has come up with strategy of licensing Infrastructure companies InfraCos as separate entities to be supported by the government to build the much needed broadband infrastructure across the country.

Kamar Abass, has recently disclosed that the company has revived SAT-3, adding that the revival would bring huge relief to Nigerians in the area of broadband capacity. This came as Natcom is reviving several others of the failed facilities of NITEL, in preparation for a massive rollout of its telecoms services in Nigeria, which will engender competition.

Now that it is reactivated, SAT-3 would provide access to global markets and enable seamless and diverse broadband connectivity to the rest of the world. For now, Nigerians are still complaining about the slow broadband penetration in the country, which is currently put at 10 per cent, with a projected target of attaining 30 per cent penetration by , as contained in the National Broadband Policy.

Daniel British. Libby British. Mia British. Karen Australian. Hayley Australian. Natasha Australian. Veena Indian. Priya Indian. Neerja Indian. Zira US English. Oliver British. Wendy British. Fred US English. Tessa South African. It transformed into Cable and Wireless later. Nigeria sought a partnership with Cable and Wireless. NET did well by providing international telephone, telex and telephone services to major cities in Nigeria like Ibadan, Enugu, Kaduna, and Port-Harcourt.

It was credited with the introduction of international Direct Dialing Services. They were mostly run with analogue infrastructure and needed a wave of digital transformation. Generally, NITEL was plagued by a list of complaints, so reforms for better communication services began. The deregulation of the sector heralded the establishment of the Nigerian Communications Commission NCC as prescribed by Decree 75 of The decree establishing the NCC helped to liberalize terminal ends equipment, and gave room for competition and private sector participation.

The deregulation meant that the NITEL regime, which was characterized by poor communication service, was over. Nigerian telecommunications received a great boost with the coming of the Global System for Communication GSM in Econet now Airtel has been said to be the first telecommunication service to launch its services in Nigeria on August 8, , going head-to-head with MTN which also began operations in August of the same year.

They were given renewable GSM licenses, which had a 5-year expiration date , and allowed them to operate within the MHz and MHz spectrum bands. Specific targets were set for the operators by the NCC. Some of the targets were a minimum of , subscribers each in the beginning year of operations, 1. The goal was efficiency and NCC was committed to achieving a secure and efficient mobile network. One important feature of the initial era of the GSM was the prestige accorded to phone owners.

At that time, only the wealthy could own phone, as it cost N80, — N, and not many could afford it. The popular phone brands were Nokia, Sagem, and Samsung. Registering a line was as costly as having a phone. Line registration was pegged at N40, to N50,, however phone billing rates were charged on the minute basis N50 per minute. Globacom , established by Mike Adenuga, brought per second billing as its unique offering. As of December , GLO had over 45 million subscribers, making it the second-largest network operator in Nigeria.

It introduced lower tariffs and other value-added services.