MTS First Wireless

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In September of 2002, US-based MTS Inc. was awarded two licenses for fixed wireless and long distance service by the Nigerian telecom regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). MTS was initially an analogue service provider in Nigeria who installed its cellular network in Abuja in 1992, and two years later the network was launched in Lagos. The company had 3,000 cellular phone subscribers by 1995. However, the company shut down business in 1996, a few months after national operator Nitel unilaterally disconnected MTS service due to claims that the latter owed it US$3.4 million. By mid-1998, MTS First Mobile was a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-owned Nitel. MTS applied to the Ministry of Communications for the new licenses, claiming that it wanted to offer service again having resolved its problems with Nitel. After a series of meetings between the Ministry of Communications, the GSM operators and MTS, an agreement was reached to provide MTS with the two new licences. In January of 2003, MTS First Wireless signed agreements worth N15 billion (US$121 million) for the deployment of a total of 3,000 km Long Distance Communications network. The agreements also covered the deployment of 700,000 CDMA 20001X fixed lines in the country. As a follow-up to the agreements, China Putian/Eastcom of China supplied the equipment for the deployment of an initial 300,000 voice and data lines. The deployment of the 300,000 lines was coming in the first phase of the company's operation. Full deployment of the first phase and the offical launch of the network was completed in August 2004 and was to bring MTS services to 12 cities including Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Onitsha/Asaba amongst others. Funding of the network was provided by local banks, The US Exim Bank, and investors from outside Nigeria led by Jessie Hill, the retired chairman of Atlanta Life Insurance and former director of Intelsat. Hill was the chairman of MTS Inc.. By the end of 2004, MTS First Wireless had reached an estimated 10,000 subscribers. None None