The company that acquired the core assets of NITEL/MTEL, the NatCom Development and Investment Limited (NTEL), made its first voice over LTE call in Lagos on Thursday, February 25, 2016.
The test, VoLTE call, was made at 3.30pm at NTEL’s new Tier III data centre in Lagos Island.
VoLTE calls are enabled over a carrier’s high-speed data network instead of on a voice network.
Voice over LTE calls also connect faster upon dialling and feature ultra-clear high-definition voice quality. The VoLTE call was completed in partnership with L M Ericsson of Sweden and Sony Electronics of Japan. This follows NTEL’s first data call on January 18, 2016, and its first SIP voice call on February 18, 2016.
NTEL will now progress work with Nigeria’s other mobile operators and international partners to perform cross-network VoLTE calls. This will ensure that NTEL’s customers can connect with each other as easily as they can to both customers in Nigeria and to those around the world.
This crystal-clear, high-definition VoLTE call was made via an NTEL SIMcard and is set to be a significant differentiating factor for NTEL as it progresses with the roll-out of Nigeria’s largest advanced 4G/LTE network due to be launched shortly.
“The successful test call is,” according to a very excited NTEL chief executive officer, Kamar Abass, “a confirmation that the key network elements are now in place to support the full commercial launch of premium integrated voice, video, and data services over the 4G/LTE. The NTEL network is built on the 900/1800 Mhz which are the most efficient propagation frequencies for the deployment of 4G/LTE technology.”
The company made its first test data call in Lagos on January 18, 2016, a few days after the NatCom chairman, Tunde Ayeni, appeared before the House of Representatives Communications Committee. Ayeni had told lawmakers that the NTEL is committed to investing over $1 billion to support the roll out of commercial services, starting in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Abuja.
He also noted that ntel will generate employment for over 4,000 Nigerians over the next five years. This test call is a further demonstration that ntel is fully committed to building on the acquired assets of NiTel/MTel to provide world class super-fast broadband services to support the Federal Government’s 2013 National Broadband plan. Ntel will commence full commercial operations, in its key launch states, shortly.
Ntel is Nigeria’s first advanced 4G LTE network providing superfast internet access that enables voice, data AND video on demand. The ntel network is built on the 900/1800 Mhz which are the best propagation frequencies for the deployment of 4G LTE technology. Ntel’s bouquet of services covers National Bandwidth, International Voice termination, International Bandwidth, Mobile and Fixed Network.
