Airtel’s Subscribers’ Base Hits 20m

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO),  Airtel Nigeria, Mr Rajan Swaroop, says the
company now has more than 20 million subscribers, up from 14.5 million in 2010
when it took over the network from Zain.

Swaroop, who spoke at a press briefing on Wednesday, in
Lagos, said that the increase represented a 32 per cent jump.

He said that the increase in the subscriber base showed that
the company was dedicated to servicing its subscribers.

Swaroop said that Airtel had within two years of its
operations invested $ 1.2 billion (N192 billion) in facilities to boost its
services.

The chief executive officer said that the company would soon
add 2,000kms of fibre cable to its network to overcome a challenge posed by
increasing data.

He said that work was currently going on  an additional 700kms of fibre cable.

“The company intends to complete the job by October, we have
doubled our network capacity in the last two years.

“The journey for our company to be the most loved
telecommunications brand is what we have begun and we are very keen on it”,
Swaroop said.

He gave an assurance that they would continue invest in all
areas until they became the best brand in Nigeria.

However, Swaroop decried the theft of the company’s power
generating sets at its base stations, fibre cuts, duplication of taxes and the
difficulty in getting clearance for the building of more base stations.

Mr. Inusa Bello, the Chief Sales Officer of the company,
said that Airtel had sales points in the 774 local government areas of the
country.

Bello said that the sales points had helped to promote the
company and grow its subscriber base.