Nigeria's Zain pumps up its fiber network

Looking to meet the demands of its ongoing growing subscriber base, Nigeria's Zain has handed Nokia Siemens Network an additional contract to expand its 4000 km nationwide fiber backbone. With Phase 1 of its 4000 km network in place, the carrier is employing Nokia Siemens Networks again for Phase 2 of the network project, which will extend the fiber optic backbone by another 600 km. Zain and Nokia Siemens Networks said this phase is on track to be completed in six months.

Zain said that Nokia Siemens Networks' Outside Plant Turnkey Solution, which includes project management, logistics and installation, enabled it to roll out Phase 1 of the project efficiently. As a result, Zain said it was able to save $7 million in network build out costs.

Khaled Khorshid, Zain Nigeria's Chief Operating Officer, said this wholly-owned network not only allows it to control its own network destiny, but meet its customer's appetite for bandwidth. "Our aim is to create wide capacity for Nigeria's growing number of customers demanding high quality broadband services by deploying self owned fiber," he said in a press release.

For more:
- here's the official release

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