WTL has played a major role in the adoption of VoIP and improving Nigeria’s telecom infrastructure backbone
11 September 2019 – At this year’s NigeriaCom, WTL is celebrating its 12th year of helping to build Nigeria’s telecoms infrastructure.
Hailing from Belgium, WTL is staffed by a team of telecoms experts who have worked with organisations from across the telecoms industry on a range of large projects throughout Nigeria. All of these projects have succeeded in moving Nigeria’s telecoms industry forward using new, innovative and award-winning approaches to tackle deep-seated problems.
Rolling out VoIP with Nigeria’s Interconnect Exchange Carriers
WTL helped five of Nigeria’s IXC carriers – Breeze Micro, Exchange, ICN, Niconnx and Solid – to build new VoIP networks across Nigeria with local switching enabled at new POPs in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Ibadan and Kano.
The five carriers chose to build VoIP networks rather than legacy TDM as it was both quicker and cheaper – and, with the use of WTL’s advanced compression techniques, more calls can be transmitted down the links.
The VoIP networks have significantly improved the quality of voice calls in Nigeria by increasing capacity and taking traffic off existing congested long-distance inter-city links.
To date, more than 10 billion Nigerian calls have passed through WTL’s specialist VoIP switches.
Rural Connectivity
WTL’s Vivada Rural Infrastructure Ecosystem includes all the hard and software needed to provide the essential utilities that a village needs: power, water phone and internet.
It was specifically developed for use in rural and semi-urban areas and has been deployed across Africa winning multiple awards in the process.
Mobile Number Portability
In 2013 WTL helped to develop Text To Port, a vital component of Nigeria’s Mobile Number Portability (MNP) programme.
Text To Port enables people in Nigeria to text their provider in the first instance to notify their intention to switch to another provider. This text then sparks a string of actions by the old and new provider to transition both the number and the customer’s account.
Adviser to the NCC
WTL has a long and productive relationship as a valued adviser to the NCC. It continues to lobby the NCC on a number of issues including….
Utilisation of Spectrum
WTL urges the NCC to introduce a Use It or Lose It approach to spectrum – or to incentivise operators to use their unused spectrum for new shared networks in rural Nigeria where there is little or no coverage at the moment. These networks would be built by a neutral service provider and used by existing operators. Allocating USF money to the CAPEX cost of such networks would reduce the risk.
National Roaming and Infrastructure Sharing
These will enable people to use the network of other service providers in Nigeria where their own service provider does not have a network or has limited network coverage. In effect, operators share their infrastructure thus eliminating the need to lay duplicate infrastructures in areas where this is not commercially feasible.
WTL also believes that infrastructure sharing will be of great benefit to Nigerians with increased coverage, improved service levels and competition driving down costs.
Payments and Billing
WTL urges the NCC to compel MNOs to pay their bills in a timely fashion as delays seriously affect the cash flow of smaller operators in Nigeria.
Award-Winning Work in Nigeria
WTL has picked up many awards for its work in Nigeria including:
- Nigerian Telecom Awards – Telecom Innovation Company of the Year
- AfricaCom – Best Connectivity Solution for Africa
- Global Carrier Awards – Best Project in Africa
- Capacity Africa – Best Technology Deployment in Africa
About WTL
Headquartered in Belgium with offices in Nigeria, Brazil and the UK, WTL helps operators in emerging markets to deploy cost-effective, reliable voice and data networks for both rural and urban environments.
WTL has deployments in more than 30 countries in Africa with a well-deserved reputation for excellent service, reliable products and an expert team with extensive experience in Africa.
Its innovative, practical and cost-effective portfolio includes:
- Vivada (Village Voice and Data), a complete system to provide rural connectivity for 2G and 4G
- Award-winning range of high capacity VoIP and hybrid VoIP/TDM switches specifically designed to replace the huge, expensive, maintenance-heavy switches that have traditionally been used to transfer VoIP traffic onto other networks
- Signalling gateways and pre-paid applications for emerging carriers and telecom service operators.
For more information visit www.wtl.be or contact WTL’s PR rep on +44 7946 342 903, skype: bridgetfishleigh or bridget@telecomsprafrica.com
