Etisalat one of the fastest growing mobile service operator in Nigeria, has extended its contracts with Alcatel-Lucent. The duo, will continue to provide managed services for etisatat’s expanding mobile network..

With Etisalat’s subscriber base seeing a drastic growth of 120% year-over-year giving it a claim of seven million subscribers in just two years, Alcatel- Lucent leader in mobile, fixed, IP and optics technologies and a pioneer in applications and services will continue to support Etisalat Nigeria’s network transformation by developing and delivering new end user services required to meet its customers’ growing demand.

Alcatel-Lucent is laden with the responsibility of ensuring the high-quality and reliable performance of the network in the south-west of the country including Lagos by providing world class services to include: network operations, consulting, design, optimization, spare parts management, maintainance services, project management.

This renewed two years multivendor managed services agreement will help significantly reduce operational services while improving services for Etisatat Nigeria’s subscribers.

Alcatel-Lucent with over 20 years of experience in managed services and currently supporting 250 million subscribers across 100 consumer networks will be responsible for the day to day operations and maintainance. This leaves Etisalat Nigeria with a clear mind to focus on their core business issues like; increasing average revenue per user [ARPU].

Steven Evans CEO of Etisalat Nigeria says ” since it began operations in Nigeria, Etisalat has been commited to providing Nigerians with world class service for which Etisalat is known for in all the countries where it operates. That is why we have selected Alcatel-Lucent, a competent partner with global experience and we look forward to them meeting our high standard s of network performance to satisfy the ever increasing demands of our subscribers.”

The news of the proposed sale of Zain has been around for a while. However, the CEO of Zain’s African operations claims that Zain Africa is not for sale.

Sounds odd. Zain Africa is not an autonomous unit apart from the global Zain operations. If Zain global is selling, surely wouldn’t this affect Zain Africa? But the CEO seems to know this. Hear him:

Zain Africa isn’t for sale. We are focused on our objective of becoming a top-10 mobile player globally by 2011. There is absolutely no lack of focus in Africa. There is always great appetite for expansion…

Whether shareholders decide to sell is entirely up to them. Shareholder matters are outside the scope of my responsibility.

Ahem. Looks like Zain Africa is up for sale. The last time we checked, that’s what the shareholders said.

Sources: The Punch newspaper; All Africa

I held out for as long as possible, hoping against hope that Zain Nigeria would have a re-think about some of their services.

No; I wasn’t asking for too much. I only needed stable mobile internet services. Because this is 2009, I also wanted that internet connection to be high speed. GPRS is good. EDGE is faster. 3G is not bad. But in 2009, anything short of a 3.5G connection does not qualify as high speed.

Recently, a Zain official confirmed to me that 3G and 3.5G are available (officially) only on post-paid SIMs. He spent time trying to convince me to migrate my line to a contract package. But I know better. I’ve had my fingers burnt on contracts a couple of times. I know others who have too.

But I was willing to stay with Zain on their pre-paid platform. You see I have high-speed internet connection at the office and at home, so I could tolerate GPRS or EDGE when out and about.

Then suddenly, Zain internet went bunkers. Tolerating GPRS/EDGE was one thing. Tolerating GPRS/EDGE that was not working was… well… you get the picture.

‘Dayo and others who know me well have been wondering why I have stayed with Zain this long. They know I normally have no qualms changing my line. It baffles them. It sort of baffles me too.

I finally gave in this morning. I just could not bear it any longer. I got myself a SIM from another network. When I popped in the new SIM, 3G/3.5G internet was ready and waiting. My Xperia X1 simply connected on schedule to download my mails. What bliss!

I am sure that Zain works for some people – perhaps people who want nothing than just voice and SMS; people who are not so into mobile internet; and people who do not need a high speed connection.

Mobile internet is primary on my list. SMS follows. Voice comes last. Yes; I’m wierd. Welcome to my world.

No; I am not so naive as to think that I won’t experience any issues with the new network. In Nigeria, that is wishful thinking. But at least, whatever it is I have to tolerate, I now have high-speed internet on the go. At least when it works.