Telecoms equipment company, Alcatel-Lucent, plans to build an additional 350 base stations for West African mobile service provider Etisalat Nigeria.

According to officials, the deal forms part of phase six of an agreement between the two companies entered into in 2008, and it is geared towards achieving a target of building 1,000 sites in the near future.

Alcatel-Lucent says the terms of the agreement also include the provision of equipment and services for the construction of the sites.

Steven Evans, chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria, said the deal is part of a phase towards improved quality of service and to potentially accommodate more subscribers on their network.

“This is a significant milestone as we move into the next phase of our network roll-out. We plan to increase our cell sites by an additional 1,000 in 2013 and this agreement is towards achieving that target,” said Evans.

“We are happy to be partnering with Alcatel-Lucent, in fulfilment of our promise to continuously deliver quality and innovative services to our customers every step of the way," he said.

Etisalat, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, has been adding additional towers to its portfolio in West Africa while other telcos in region have decided to sell off their mobile sites.

ITWeb Africa reported last year that mobile operator, MTN Group, was planning to sell its mobile sites to Nigerian mobile tower firm, IHS Holdings.

IHS planned to use $415 million to acquire MTN Group's 1,757 mobile towers in Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire.

According to research from Frost & Sullivan it costs more to build sites and African operators could save $2 billion over the next 10 years if they choose to lease.