Globacom to invest billions on upgrade network capacity

Telecommunications operator, Globacom, has revealed plans to spend billions of funds in the upgrade of its facilities across the country.

The investment is expected to go into network infrastructure, swapping of equipment with latest technology, and upgrade of its base stations and switches around Nigeria.

According to a new road map document from the network provider, the last 10 months have witnessed the landing of about 26 freight aircraft from around the world bringing over 2,600 tonnes of network equipment into the country.

The Guardian had reported earlier in the week, how obsolete and inadequate infrastructure in the sector will increase subscribers’ woes.

But the Group Chief Technical Director of Globacom, Sanjib Roy, said the new equipment purchased by the firm has gone a long way in building a brand new network with quality and higher capacity.

“Activation is looking up, traffic into the network is going up and consumption is up,” he said.

He also stated that the Glo 1 submarine cable capacity has been upgraded to 300G all the way From Lagos to UK, giving huge bandwidth for mobile and Enterprise business.  “And all these have been possible because of quick supply and fast and effective deployment,” he stated.

To further firm up network uptime and provide seamless connection at all times,  he said the company had deployed more than 2,000 new generators and 6,000 new batteries while site distribution of fuelling contractors has been streamlined, thereby removing all obstacles to BTS site operations. He said this has led to better availability of the network, adding that work was on-going on more than 1000km of fibre route where road construction had affected the fibre cabling.

To further deepen data network quality for subscribers, deployment of high wattage Radio Remote Units (RRU) for 3G services and multi-sector antenna has been concluded for better 3G indoor coverage, high speed data download, signal quality and network coverage.

For improved backhaul, Globacom is further upgrading the capacity of existing microwave links, converting TDM links to IP for 2G and 3G, and is deploying high capacity microwave back up links to increase data back haul capacity and protect traffic against fibre cut.

Globacom has also ordered 750- 3G multi-sectors and 700 high capacity CE boards to further boost data speed around high traffic areas. Network quality is to be further boosted with another order for 1710 Base Station Equipment and 2200 high capacity Node B.

The Node B provides the connection between mobile phones and the wider telephone network. These will help boost the network in key population areas.

The Glo 2019 outline showed that Globacom is planning for a bigger and better future. “We are using a scientific and methodical way of rolling out new sites based on feedback from the regions on where the sites are needed to address customer complaints,” he stated.

“More than 400 sites are in the process of rollout based on field feedback. We are also planning to rollout LTE in 1800 band this year in major cities to increase our 4G LTE penetration and allow higher handset adoption to enable and empower the masses to harness the future.

New enterprise products to cater to the needs of SMEs and rural areas to create the digital environment to empower business growth in Nigeria is also in the works. New sites will also be built in rural areas to remove the digital divide between cities and villages,” he disclosed.

Globacom revealed that its second submarine cable, Glo2, will be rolled out this year to give fillip to overall socio-economic development of the delta regions and also provide the much needed bandwidth for local ICT businesses to flourish. The facility will also provide back up for the terrestrial fibre route from Port Harcourt to Lagos.

Other new initiatives planned for this year include conceptual launch for 5G in 700mhz band for Internet of Things application, introduction of new data analytics tools to capture subscriber experience in real time.