Multi-Links Introduces New Technology, Internet Service
December 5, 2002
Posted to the web December 8, 2002
allafrica.com
Tayo Ajakaye
Lagos
Nigeria private telecom operator, Multi-Links, has concluded plans to introduce a new technology, CDMA 20001X in its network.
The Executive Director of the Company, Chief Ezekiel Fatoye who briefed newsmen during the week-end said the company will be the first to introduce the new technology not only in Nigeria but in the continents of Europe and Africa. Said Fatoye, "What we are doing now is the first in Africa."
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He said the new technology will enable the company to provide fax, data and secure Internet access in addition to high quality voice. Pointing out that CDMA technology supports packet data up to peak data rate of 153 KBPS, the latest technology, he said, also supports G3 fax at 14.4KBPS.
Going down memory lane, Fatoye said Multi-Links was the first company to introduce the CDMA technology in Nigeria way back then, but the technology at the time had a major flaw in that it could neither support fax nor data which made its use unsuccessful.
With new advancement however, the company in introducing the enhanced CDMA 20001X will introduce new generation CDMA fixed wireless terminals with LCD Display, Hands Free Speaker Phone, menu-Driven Feature Scroll and various Ring and Tone selection. The terminals also support network dependent features such as Call Waiting, Call Transfer, Caller Line Identification and three-Way Calling.
And goaded by the competition of the time, the company is also establishing an Internet set-up to provide secure Internet Access. In other words, the company is now also an ISP.
Although the cost to subscribers has not been worked out, Fatoye said "Multi-Links will provide efficient secure Internet access without the usual problems associated with Dial-up Internet access such as congestion, low speed and frequent disconnection."
Some of the features of the Internet set-up as listed by Fatoye are
_Secure Internet Access _Secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) _High Throughput as an average data rate between 30 - 70 KBPS, with a peak rate of 153 KBPS _High Grade Quality of Service _Web Steering _Quick Download of Games, Images and Graphics, and _ Personalised Web Experience
Speaking on further benefits of the technology, he said that it enables the company the ability to migrate into 3G without much effort in the future.
He said the CDMA 2000 1X Network will soon be commissioned and that acceptance test for the project is already in progress. The actual soft launch of the new network has been fixed tentatively for January next year.
On how the company will be able to manage the two grades of network, that is the new CDMA with TDMA, Fatoye stated that, "We have overlaid CDMA over TDMA so that two of them can work together." He disclosed that as time goes on however, the company expects subscribers will move to the new CDMA.
For an existing subscriber who wants the new service, Fatoye said what the company will do is change his terminal.
Eight years after commencement of operations and after younger telcos had gone outside Lagos to offer service, Multi-Links announced that it would start offering service outside Lagos and would offer service in all parts of the country.
Asked why it took them this long to realise what new comers had realised and started to do almost immediately, Fatoye said at the point where it was ready to go outside Lagos, Nitel said it had no interconnection point anywhere outside Lagos.
Another problem he said, was that wireless technology by then was not as advanced as it is now and the company thought it would be necessary to wait a little while so that it could provide good service.
He then promised, "By November next year, we would have been able to cover all the six geo-political zones" adding that the contract for the project is at an advanced stage.
The company also announced the stoppage of charging tariff on received calls. Fatoye said that for mobile subscribers, as "from December 1, 2002, Multi-Links has decided to remove charges on incoming calls which is an additional benefit to all subscribers." Henceforth, according to him, it would be "talk as you wish." |
