Mobile broadband specialists Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) has on Wednesday officially opened a new office with advanced facilities in Tripoli, Libya.
The office is planned to “enhance the company’s operational agility for delivery of its mobile broadband infrastructure for all operators in the country,” reads a press statement.
Furthermore, the office is expected to boost NSN’s presence in North Africa.
“This enhances the position of Libya as a technology hub, while improving knowledge transfer toward our country. NSN’s operations in Libya will greatly contribute to our mobile broadband infrastructure and the country’s development,” said Faisel Gergab, chairman of the Libyan Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Company (LPTIC).
Meanwhile, Igor Leprince, head of Middle East & Africa business region for NSN, said, “The opening of this modern office marks our readiness to deliver large-scale mobile broadband rollouts in Libya.”
NSN further says it plans to train Libyan telecom engineers to become mobile broadband practitioners.
NSN has moved to invest in the North African country despite concerns of instability there following a 2011 civil war that led to the ousting and killing of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
During the uprising, much infrastructure, including that of telecoms equipment, was damaged in the country.
However, BuddeComm research says that despite the destruction, “Libya’s telecommunications infrastructure is superior to those in most other African countries”.
“Massive investments had been made by the former government into a next-generation national fibre optic backbone network, the expansion of DSL and WiMAX broadband services, new international fibre connections and upgrades to existing ones, and one of Africa’s first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) deployments,” says the telecoms research organisation on its website.
Libya also has a mobile penetration rate of above 100%, according to BuddeComm. Libya has a population of just over 6 million, according to the World Bank.
“With one of the highest market penetration rates in Africa, the mobile voice market is approaching saturation, supported by some of the lowest tariffs on the continent and one of the highest per capita GDP levels,” says BuddeComm.
“Opportunities remain in the broadband sector where market penetration is still relatively low,” says the research firm.
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