World Telecom Labs (WTL) today announced that more than 1 billion minutes have passed through its specialist 2nd generation VoIP switches deployed by five of Nigeria’s interconnect exchange carriers.
A ceremony is being held today during the annual NigeriaCom telecoms conference and exhibition, when all five of the carriers will be presented with a trophy to mark this historic occasion.
Licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the carriers - Breeze Micro, Exchange, ICN, Niconnx and Solid - were established to increase competition and transparency in the Nigerian telecom marketplace. The four leading mobile operators in Nigeria are now all required to divert 10% of their inter-carrier voice and SMS traffic to one of these operators.
The five licensees started offering services at the end of last year initially acting as wholesale interconnect carriers for TDM voice traffic. They are using WTL’s switches to transfer traffic between the four existing mobile networks. WTL is also helping the operators with their billing systems and the optimisation of voice traffic to increase capacity and reduce costs.
Leigh Smith, MD of WTL, said “What a triumph for the NCC. The benefits of introducing the new carriers are clear: a huge amount of traffic is being taken off the infrastructure of the established carriers in Nigeria thereby freeing up capacity, increasing speeds and reducing latency. In addition, there is greater transparency and openness in the market.”
Jihad Jaafar, CTO of Breeze Micro, said “The billionth minute is a significant moment for both Breeze Micro and our interconnect exchange carrier colleagues. WTL has been instrumental in our success. Its team of experts continue to be generous in sharing their knowledge and experience which is benefiting both the telecoms market and indeed the people of Nigeria.”
WTL’s range of 2nd generation VoIP and hybrid VoIP/TDM switches have been specifically designed to replace the huge, expensive, maintenance-heavy switches that have traditionally been used to transfer VoIP traffic onto other networks. They are capable of handling 1000s of simultaneous calls and were awarded second place in the Best Cost Efficiency Innovation category at last year’s AfricaCom awards.
WTL and its 2nd Generation VoIP switches have also been shortlisted in the Best Telecom Innovation Product category at this year’s Nigerian Telecoms awards. The winners will be announced on 20 September. www.nigeriantelecomawards.com
