ipNX Nigeria Limited announced it has selected SOMA Networks, Inc. to commercially deploy a next-generation wireless broadband system across three major cities in Nigeria. ipNX will launch broadband Internet access and voice services in Lagos, the most populous and economically influential state, quickly followed by Abuja and Port Harcourt – the federal capital and oil nerve centre of Nigeria, respectively.
ipNX has an aggressive rollout plan throughout Nigeria over the next three years, during which it anticipates delivering carrier-grade voice and high-speed data services to more than 250,000 customers over the new WiMAX-ready network.
ipNX selected SOMA’s FlexMAX Wireless System after extensive trials with numerous broadband wireless vendors. During the evaluation period, test engineers found that only the SOMA system was capable of providing POTS-quality voice and multi-megabit broadband data, without the need for professional installation technicians. The VoIP capabilities of the system were critical selection criteria for ipNX, since the company plans to expand its regional VoIP footprint to the entire nation. With the exceptional coverage range of the FlexMAX system, ipNX can expand beyond its current commercial and banking customer base and target the residential market throughout Nigeria, supporting the company’s goals of increasing broadband and telecommunications penetration to the home market.
Throughout most of Africa, basic telecommunications infrastructure is severely lacking and broadband penetration rates are extremely low. According to the ITU, the average tele-density in sub-Saharan Africa is one percent meaning that only one out of 100 people have fixed-line telephone service. Recently, the Nigerian government through its telecommunications regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), launched a broadband penetration campaign called SABI (State Accelerated Broadband Initiative), which is designed to aggressively expand broadband access to all major commercial cities in Nigeria. Today, aside from South Africa, Nigeria boasts the largest GDP growth in Africa, and has been identified as one of the most rapidly growing broadband markets in the world.
“The need for basic communications infrastructure in Nigeria is growing tremendously. We knew that a wireless broadband system was our best option for offering communications services as quickly as possible, with minimum upfront capital cost,” said Ejovi Aror, Group Managing Director of ipNX. “Without question, SOMA Networks was the clear choice, as their system will help us revolutionize the infrastructure-based telecommunication and IT market as we provide the highest quality-of-service to our customers and unsurpassed value in a cost-effective and responsible manner. The FlexMAX system delivers landline-quality voice, and has the ability to scale quickly to deliver advanced broadband applications over a single network as our subscriber base grows and their application needs evolve.”
“Moreover, the SOMA system’s cell radius is the largest of any non-line-of-sight wireless solution we evaluated, which significantly lowers our initial costs and enables a speedy rollout. The system’s user-friendly subscriber gateway devices and remote diagnostic capabilities – which eliminate the need for professional technicians to install the equipment or troubleshoot problems – are also important features,” added Mr. Aror.
“We look forward to working with ipNX to deliver state-of-the-art communications services throughout Nigeria,” said Yatish Pathak, CEO of SOMA Networks. “In emerging economies, service providers want to put in one network that will provide its voice, data, and multimedia needs cost-effectively for years to come. ipNX understands that a broadband network must provide these converged services now or be faced with a complete network upgrade later. ipNX’s selection of our FlexMAX system underscores its ‘future-proof’ nature.”
Keywords: broadband penetration, broadband internet access, broadband initiative, broadband system, broadband data, wireless broadband, target, nigeria, soma networks, penetration rates, basic telecommunications, telecommunications regulator, launch, ncc, WiMAX
