ntel Makes History With First Voice over LTE Call In Nigeria

*ntel CEO, Kamar Abass

History was made in Lagos on Thursday, this week when NatCom Development and Investment Limited (trading as ‘ntel’), the company that acquired the core assets of NiTel/MTel (in liquidation) made its first Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call.

The test VoLTE call was made at 3.30pm at ntel’s new Tier III data centre located on Lagos Island.

VoLTE calls are enabled over a carrier’s high-speed data network instead of on a voice network. Voice over LTE calls also connect faster upon dialling and feature ultra-clear high-definition voice quality.

The VoLTE call was completed in partnership with Original Equipment Manufacturers, LM Ericsson of Sweden and Sony Electronics of Japan. This follows ntel’s first data call on 18 January, 2016 and its first SIP voice call on 18 February, 2016.

ntel will now progress work with Nigeria’s other mobile operators and international partners to perform cross-network VoLTE calls. This will ensure that ntel’s customers can connect with each other as easily as they can to both customers in Nigeria and to those elsewhere in the world: a network now comprising more

than seven billion telephones, globally.

This crystal-clear, high-definition VoLTE call was made via an ntel sim card and is set to be a significant differentiating factor for ntel as it progresses with the roll-out of Nigeria’s largest Advanced 4G/LTE network, due to be launched shortly.

ntel CEO, Kamar Abass said the successful test call is “confirmation that the key network elements are now in place to support the full commercial launch of premium integrated voice, video and data services over 4G/LTE,” adding that “the ntel network is built on the 900/1800 Mhz which are the most efficient propagation frequencies for the deployment of 4G/LTE technology.”

It should be recalled that the company made its first test data call in Lagos on Monday January 18, 2016, a few days after NatCom chairman, Tunde Ayeni appeared before the House of Representatives Communications Committee.

Ayeni had told lawmakers during his appearance that ntel is committed to investing over $1bn to support roll out of commercial services, starting in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja. He also noted that ntel will generate employment for over 4,000 Nigerians over the next five years.

This test call is a further demonstration that ntel is fully committed to building on the acquired assets of NiTel/MTel to provide world class super-fast broadband services to support the Federal Government’s 2013 National Broadband plan.

ntel will commence full commercial operations, in its key launch states, shortly.