Ligali who spoke at the first-ever Africa Technology Congress (AfriTECC-07) in Lagos, said that operators could leverage on installed 2G and enhanced 2G infrastructure to increase customer base.
According to him, exploiting 2G infrastructure to reduce cost in 3G roll out would also be enhanced with the acquisition of 900/1800/1900/2100 Mega Hertz (MHz) spectrum on a combined circuit and packet switched platform.
Ligali who was represented at the occasion by the Chief Commercial Officer of Celtel Nigeria, Michael Foley, pointed out that deployment of 2G+ in readiness for 3G would afford operators to optimise a unified platform for delivery of multimedia services in a converged world.
This, he noted, would engender new and enhanced services, more attractive offerings for the customers, improved network capacity and quality of service (QoS).
The optimisation of the Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) and Operating Expenditures (OPEX), he said would amount to cost savings for the operator, in addition to increased competition in the marketplace.
He went on to outline the merits of the 3G to include improved quality of voice service, corporate electronic mail (e-mail), multimedia messaging, mobile Internet and e-Commerce.
Also, he said, the 3G would make available to the market place the streaming of audio and video as well as mobile video, adding that high speed music downloads, gaming, entertainment services, location services, mobile maps and fleet management services among others would be at the request of customers.
"3G offers more exciting user experience and improved quality of service," he declared.
The 3G, he added, promises the customers a worldwide telecom compatibility, interoperability and roaming among different standards.
Above all, he said, the 3G is important because it would afford countrywide availability of data services and Internet, stressing that with this, competition would be scaled up and could lead to the lowering of data charges and higher adoption of electronic transactions.
Thus, it would enthrone a society with increased Internet usage that would grow cultural and economic force on the continent.
He did not lose sight of the need for addressing a number of other infrastructure issues including bandwidth that goes out of the country.
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