A number of Nigerian banks have joined a metro city fibre connectivity service, allowing them to pass traffic through the network to all their branches within the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja).
So far, Aso Savings, GT Bank, UBA and Zenith Bank have been connected to the metro city fibre network, says Tony Ayabam, COO of Layer3, the company that rolled out the network.
Layer3 established the network, covering the greater part of Abuja metropolis, in a bid to create an all-fibre network with gigabit customer premises equipment, which supports triple-play (voice, video and data) services.
"The fibre network links the various banking branches, allowing them to pass traffic of their choice through the network between the inter-connected branches. This will create numerous benefits for the financial sector," says Oyaje Idoko, CEO of Layer3.
Until now, most banks operating online transactions depended on terrestrial radio networks and VSATs for inter-branch and ATM connectivity. These had limitations, especially in terms of high bandwidth costs, spectrum fees, as well as high latency in the case of VSATs, he says.
'100% secure'
There were also strong reliability issues affecting these banks' operations due to frequent downtime.
"We believe there has [since] been a recorded increase in customer satisfaction."
Idoko notes the network is 100% secure, adding to the security benefits in a country where online corruption is rife.
The cost is based on an annual subscription, which depends on the bandwidth capacity the client wants. Capacity starts from 128kbps up to STM-16, explains Ayabam.
Cost does not include the fibre infrastructure or customer premise equipment, but just the bandwidth as Layer3 owns all installed customer premises equipment and infrastructure, he adds.
Banks connected via Layer3's fibre obtain virtually unlimited bandwidth.
The service comes with free IP phone calls between connected branches over a managed IP PBX.
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