Mobile operators deploy 77, 235.5km of fibre cables across networks – Report
By Ralph Tathagata
Nigerian mobile operators have deployed a total of 77, 235.5km of fibre (On-land and Submarine) as at December 2022, according to a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The report said that 49,367.2km was deployed on land as terrestrial fibre optics cable, while 27,868.3km was deployed as submarine cable across all five networks, including MTN, Globacom, 9mobile, Airtel and ntel.
Meanwhile, MTN had the largest on-land and submarine deployment of 14,612km and 17,984lm respectively as at December 2022.
The report added that the total submarine fiber deployment in kilometers as at December 2022 was 27,868.3km as against 27,818.3km in year 2021, which is an increase of 0.17% within the year in view.
Total on land fiber deployment was 49,367.20km as against 47,128.7km in year 2021. The on-land fiber deployment among five operators include: MTN – 14,612km; GLO – 13,813km; Airtel – 16,112.2km; EMTS trading as 9mobile – 4,650km and ntel – 180km.
The report further revealed that the fiber deployment was made by four operators in this order – MTN -17,984km; GLO – 9,800km; Airtel -14.3km and ntel – 70km.
What’s more, as at December 2022, the mobile operators had deployed a total of 288,947.48km of Microwave Radio links as against the 290,625.69km of Microwave Radio links reported for 2021, which is a decrease of 0.57%.
For the Microwave Radio deployment, MTN covered 80,074.59km in 2022 as against 85,551 that it covered in 2021. Globacom covered 71,061.46km in 2022 as against 71,540km that it covered in 2021. Airtel covered 81,352.00km in 2022 as against 77,095km that it covered in 2021. EMTS, trading as 9mobile, covered 48,957.69km in 2022 as against 48,958km that it covered in 2021. Smile covered 2,948.00km of Microwave Radio link in 2022 as against 2,948kn that it covered in 2021, while ntel covered 4,553.74km Microwave Radio link in 2022 as against 4,534km that it covered in 2021.
“MTN, Airtel, Globacom and EMTS, had a total number of 41,395 Trunks (E1 lines) in use as at December 2022, indicating a decline from 59,048 Trunks (E1) reported as at December 2021. Most operators have implemented and evolved Internet Protocol (IP) capacities to carry volumes of data traffic hence the perceived reduction in E1, which was experienced in the previous year. Thus, the reduction was due to changes in technology,” the NCC report further revealed.
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