In a bid to further demonstrate that telecommunications is now an essential utility second only to water, transportation and power, work on the 115km telecommunication cable duct in Calabar, from Tinapa to Anantigha, has hit the ground running. Visibly, in several parts of the metropolis, men can be seen excavating portions where the underground cables will run.
Calitown.com investigations show that, the privately funded project between the Cross River State Government and telecom giant, MTN, will cost a whooping N1.1 billion to implement.
The infrastructure for the project includes the building of 99 additional base stations by MTN this year and in 2014 and 2015 as well as the installation of three telecom cable ducts and 96 core fibre optic cables, enabling the system provide broadband access for all Calabar residents, remarkably delivering improved voice service, making video upload and download over wired and wireless channels a reality.
Already, residents are upbeat on the benefits completion of this project will bring to a city unarguably the most sought after in Nigeria by investors and leisure vendors. One resident spoken to revealed that this investment which will make Calabar the most wired city in Nigeria, will also boost business activities through a broadband enabled city wide wireless fidelity, WIFI, reducing considerably the frustration and man hours spent trying to access telecom and allied services.
Does that mean landlines are coming back?