The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced the merger plans of CDMA mobile operators in the country, Starcomms, Multilinks and MTS as part of a new effort to increase services to the West African country.
NCC director Lolia Emakpore said in comments to Reuters news agency at a telecoms conference in Dubai currently taking place that she expects “the mobile subscriber base in Nigeria to grow 14 percent next year to 120 million once approval has been granted.
Most subscribers are currently on systems that use GSM technology and CDMA operators have been hardest hit by increasing competition.
Emakpore said the merger talks “have not been concluded yet.”
Starcomms is the only telecommunications company listed on the Nigerian bourse.
The merger also has NCC hopes of being able to boost the country’s overall telecom customer service ratings in the country, which has seen citizens’ complain about the poor service and customer relations.
The NCC has said that they will take action against telecom operators if they do not act to rectify the current situation, which makes the merger all the more interesting as potentially helping to boost overall services to Nigerian residents.
