MTN Battles Environmental Challenge, Upgrade Power System

AS part of its commitment towards tackling environmental challenges, which is currently being witnessed by the impact of ravaging flooding in several parts of Nigeria, leading ICT services provider, MTN is upgrading all electricity power generating sets in its 10,000 base station to hybrid generating set.

The initiative is intended to create green neighbourhood in everywhere MTN operates in the country as well as reduce pollution in residential areas.

Upon completion, the new hybrid generators, which are environmentally friendly, will operate using batteries.

The company’s Corporate Services Executive, Mr. Wale Goodluck who drop the hint while giving update on its ongoing network modernization and swap-out exercise in the company of Mrs Funmi Omogbenigun, the General Manager, Corporate Communications of MTN said the generators will only come up when the battery has reached a certain level stressing that the implication of this development is that the complain of noise and air pollution by residents will be a thing of the past.

The network modernisation, which began in June this year, and is expected to last for nine months entail upgrading and replacing key network components with newer versions for enhanced capacity and much improved quality of service.

According to Goodluck, about 900 sites in the Enugu and Port Harcourt region of the country have been swapped and modernised noting that that means that engineers have visited those sites and that those areas should be expecting a better quality of service.

While noting that most of the jobs were done at night and weekends to minimise the effect of service disruption, he called on its customers and other key stakeholders to show understanding stressing that MTN is concern about giving the best quality of service.

He disclosed that the network upgrade, optimisation and modernisation are essential for the delivery of quality service to all subscribers stating that the equipment that are being upgraded have been there since 2001.

He said that the new equipment that MTN is deploying in its 10,000 base stations across the country are the latest in the market stressing that “we cannot allow the legacy equipment remain in our network.”

While lamenting the impact of the current flooding in some parts of the country on the exercise as well as the damage done to telecoms infrastructure he said work has been slowed down in the flood-affected areas adding that efforts are also targeted at solving the problems created by the damaged done to the telecoms infrastructures in the north.

Goodluck while complaining about the damage done to its fibre cable by the flooding said that MTN is currently constructing steel structures to raise its generating sets in the flood-affected areas.

He noted that although the job entails hard work and will take time to complete that he stressed is the only way that MTN can keep its network running.

He added that the flooding has also affected its logistic management chain saying that that has affected its delivery time when transporting equipment from one part of the country to another.

While describing the current flood crisis as a major nightmare for the network modernization and swap-out exercise he assured its customers and other key stakeholders bear with MTN.

 “We regret, however, that the pace of work has been considerably challenged by the spate of insecurity coupled with the unprecedented flooding being experienced in many parts of the country.”

 The network optimization exercise will affect over 4,000 base stations out of over 10, 000 across the country. According to Goodluck, ‘The task that we are undertaking is tantamount to building a new network .We are seeking to replicate what we achieved over a six year period in nine months’.

 Goodluck explained that considerable progress has been recorded with regard to the ongoing network improvement plans. “Several swap-outs have reached very advanced stages of completion,” he disclosed. “The entire network modernization process is a very logistic-intensive one and the problem of insecurity has seriously affected the pace of work in some parts of the country.” In addition, in at least 13 states, Goodluck added, flooding has created additional logistic impediments such that the pace of the ongoing network modernization efforts has slowed down.

 Goodluck acknowledged that MTN’s customers have been experiencing some disruption over the last few weeks. “We sincerely express our thanks to our customers for their patience,” he said, pledging that that as much as possible, MTN would stick to its original plan of carrying out the network procedures only at night, in order to minimize disruptions to services. He also assured that MTN is doing everything possible, including doubling its work teams, to finalize the project as quickly as possible.

 Several communities, Goodluck disclosed, have been very supportive of the current network modernization efforts. “We sincerely appreciate the enthusiastic support which our engineering teams continue to receive from different communities in many parts of the country.” Such support he said was often a much-needed tonic in the face of the enormous logistic-challenges the project regularly encounters.

 MTN’s current network modernization and swap-out exercise which began in July 2012 is expected to cover the entire country and was originally expected to span a period of nine months. Its objectives are to considerably enhance capacity on the MTN Network and improve service quality.

Under the project, which is being implemented by a combined team of MTN engineers and technical partners that include Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE, key network components are being swapped with the latest upgrades in the industry.

“It’s a massive investment we are making,” said Goodluck, “to boost not only the quality of telephone services, but also to enhance the back-end information and communication technology support which we provide for banking and financial services, the oil industry and several other industries across Nigeria.”

He expressed MTN’s thanks and appreciation to all of the company’s stakeholders “especially our customers and we pledge to do all we can, despite the mitigating circumstances, to finalize the network modernization project as quickly as possible.”