The Chief Executive Officer ntel, Ernest Akinola has disclosed that the network operator has concluded plans with two network operators, MTN and 9mobile to roll out accommunicationing service in the country which is expected to come into operation in April.
He further revealed that the company is already at the commercial decision stage with 9mobile and is finalising the pricing, having completed the trial of the roaming plan.
Also with MTN, he stated that the network provider had agreed to go on national roaming trial with ntel.
This agreement will enable ntel’s customers to make calls on 9Mobile’s network using any 2G or 3G handset within the specified trial zone.
According to Akinlola, some of the benefits of rolling out a national roaming service are immediate coverage parity, service backward compatibility of 4G to 3G and 2G, handset compatibility and speed to scale.
In his words:
“The partnership with 9mobile, which has 2G/3G, will help customers to enjoy the best data with good speed. It will help the network operators to become efficient and have less cost with the roll out in 4G. The planned roll out with 9mobile is on the commercial decision stage”
Ntel is owned by NatCom Development & Investment Ltd. (NatCom) and acquired the assets of State Owned Mtel and Nitel through a liquidation process that was concluded in 2015.
The company made its first on-net test data call in Lagos on January 18, 2016, and followed this up with the first on-net Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) call in Lagos on February 25, 2016, while full commercial operations commenced on April 8, 2016.
Its range of services include national bandwidth, international voice termination, international bandwidth, mobile and fixed communication.