The west African country of Togo will have its first wireless 3G network by the end of the year.
International telecommunications network provider Alcatel-Lucent says it has been awarded the 22 million euro contract by Togo Cellulaire, the leading mobile operator in Togo. The deal will see Alcatel-Lucent extend the operator's network capacity in GSM and build the first 3G wireless broadband network in the country.
The new network will enable Togo Cellulaire to offer advanced mobile broadband services to over 2.2 million subscribers and businesses throughout the country.
Togo Cellulaire was formed in July 1998 and is a subsidiary of Togo Telecom, the state-owned operator. It has more than 1.6 million subscribers, 99% of which are on prepaid contracts. The company has a 75% market share.
Alcatel-Lucent will build an end-to-end turnkey solution, including a converged radio access network portfolio to support both 2G- and 3G-based services.
Ready for growth
The solutions include the introduction of its UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, based on an evolving multi-standard radio access solution, the extension of the operator's next-generation home location register database system, and the expansion of the base station system targeting packet traffic control.
Alcatel-Lucent will also supply Togo Cellulaire with its microwave transport solutions for enhancing interconnection among base stations and providing mobile traffic backhauling capabilities along with an integrated flexible wireless network management system.
In addition, Alcatel-Lucent will provide a variety of professional services, including technical assistance and transfer of competence for the operations, administration and maintenance of Togo Cellulaire network, and 3G deployment services, including overall network planning and design, field integration, network optimisation and training services.
Economic growth
Togo Cellulaire CEO Atcha-Dedji Affoh says the company is looking forward to the “converged technologies and professional services to support the delivery of advanced, high-speed 3G services that will support economic development throughout our country”.
Flavien Bachabi, Intelsat group VP for Africa, has previously said World Bank figures indicate that a 10% increase in broadband penetration is equal to a 1.3% growth in the economy.
Alcatel-Lucent has been supplying Togo Cellulaire with advanced mobile solutions, including radio access, core network and applications such as personalised ring-back tones, mobile e-mail and billing, since 1998.
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