Lagos — Nigeria's mobile operator, Mtel,has concluded plans to start GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) in March this year. It would be the second mobile operator to offer the service after Glo Mobile.

The chief marketing officer of MTEL, Mr. Edwin Moore Momife made this disclosure at a press conference in Lagos on the forthcoming Value Added Services Expo, tagged e-NNOVATE 2005 which is being sponsored in part by the GSM company. According to Momife, the MTEL network would be ready to deploy GPRS-based broadband data and content services by the end of March.

The credit for this development, said Momife rests squarely on Hajiya Halita Aliyu, chairman of the MTEL board of directors who has since assumption of duty, striven to ensure that MTEL, as an innovation-driven company, quickly introduces a broad range of value added services. "We are in an era of fast-paced, purposeful innovation", Momife said.

What MTEL's deployment of GPRS implies, said Momife is that MTEL subscribers will be able to access their corporate emails and other business-critical information by means of their MTEL phones, wherever they may be. In addition, subscribers would be able to move large files like Microsoft word and spreadsheets via their mobile devices. Yet another implication of its GPRS deployment, Momife said is that the network will enable access to the internet such that subscribers can access the internet from their phones and laptop computers from all parts of the country where MTEL has coverage. Users of the MTEL service will also have the ability to share such information as field photographs or even press reports and sales data with colleagues in real time even while away from the office.

The first phase of the launch which is what would be launched in March would accommodate about 300 subscribers. There would be more capacity for the service in subsequent phases.

Momife who said the operator was not in a hurry to sell too many lines so as to allow for effective GPRS service said space was being reserved for the GPRS subscribers to make sure that there was no complaints when the service takes off.

Beyond the use of the service in the corporate environment, said Momife, MTEL subscribers would have access to multimedia content that include pictures, polyphonic ringtones and even movie clips. "It will become possible for subscribers on the MTEL network to send and receive images and large files on their phones and even upload pictures taken via camera phones to web-based albums for viewing by friends and family".

GPRS, momife, said, has already been tested successfully by MTEL in a pilot environment. Indeed "people who possess 3G phones can confirm from the network capability indicator on such phones that MTEL 2.5G service is ready". The company, he stated is working with Ericsson, Motorola, Huawei and ZTE on the GPRS project. "We have secured sufficient high throughput bandwidth via NITEL Sat 3 connection and have also successfully integrated our switches and transmission infrastructure across the country". The objective, he said, "is to ensure full nationwide availability of GPRS rather than selective availability as currently obtains. We believe MTEL subscribers, ought to be able to benefit from GPRS if they are within an MTEL-covered area, no matter how remote".

"By adopting the policy of making data capabilities available on the MTEL network via GPRS, MTEL is being positioned to offer world class services that will enrich subscribers' experience, keeping them connected to vital information and services for business as well as personal purposes", stated Momife. In so doing, MTEL has adopted an open-door policy such that the MTEL network becomes a marketplace for leading social and international content providers to profitably render services.

And it is not only subscribers who posses GPRS-enabled phones who will benefit from MTEL's GPRS deployment. "Our open value added service policy is such that content providers will be able to offer services via SMS and IVR (interactive voice response) to our subscribers who do not posses GPRS-enabled phones".

MTEL's innovation focus and drive, said Momife, accounts for the major reason why the GSM company is partnering with XLR8, organizers of the forthcoming e-NNOVATE EXPO. "We plan to showcase these capabilities at the e-NNOVATE EXPO and clearly demonstrate the immense value that attends to being an MTEL subscriber." The EXPO is billed for February 3 and 4 at the MUSON Centre, Onikan.

Momife commenting on the inability of some Mtel subscribers to send SMS to subscribers in other networks said that for a long time, Mtel had problems with the other operators who did not provide her with the appropriate data connection agreement. He however added that, "I can tell you today that SMS with MTN is working perfectly, 100 percent. SMS with Glomobile is building up, is starting to work very well. SMS with Vmobile is undergoing testing."

He also disclosed that the operator had finished the Kaduna - Birnin Kebbi, transmission backbone, which is one of the longest transmission infrastructure in the country. "We are now working on Maiduguri - Yola, which would bring us close to 240 base station in that part of the country, he further added.