10 December 2003 Munich Lightwave Europe--The second largest national carrier of Nigeria, Globacom Limited, has awarded Siemens a major order to deliver and install a nationwide optical network infrastructure. The network infrastructure will feature fixed line networks in the southwest and GSM mobile networks for more than 20 cities and roads in the northern part of Nigeria, including Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Zaria, Jaji, Sokoto, Gombe, Katsina, Maiduguri, Dutse, Katangora, Yola and Jos. The project, in triple-digit millions of euros, will be carried out jointly by the Siemens Information and Communication Networks and Information and Communication Mobile Groups.
Siemens Information and Communication Mobile will deliver GSM base stations and switching technology to provide a million subscribers in the cities with mobile services within the coming months. Siemens Information and Communication Networks will set up an ultra-modern nationwide turnkey infrastructure for fast data and voice transmission via an optical network covering a length of over 2,700 km. Siemens is using its latest optical solution SURPASS hiT 7070 for this core network. The connection between the optical data network and the GSM base stations will be set up via microwave radio relay. In the first phase, Siemens will set up the modern infrastructure for Globacom for fixed line services for over 50,000 subscribers in Lagos and 20,000 in Ibadan.
The network should on completion raise the effective GSM mobile switching and radio capacities of Globacom's nationwide network to over 2.5 million subscriber lines, and 70,000 fixed lines. Transmission to the cities both in the north and south will be via an optical network.
