Motorola, Inc. today announced that it has received orders valued at $70 million from Celtel Nigeria, part of Zain Group, to further expand and enhance the operator’s GSM coverage in the Southern part of Nigeria.

As part of Celtel’s comprehensive network expansion strategy, Motorola will deploy its latest Motorola Reach GSM solutions, including EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) capability for mobile data, and will provide comprehensive network expansion planning, integration, support and optimization services to Celtel as it extends network coverage to a growing subscriber base in this densely populated and strategically important oil- producing region.

“Celtel’s aggressive growth strategy, rapid expansion and strong focus on quality make it imperative for us to work with a vendor that can provide us with high performance, reliable GSM solutions and services. Motorola’s ability to understand our business needs and to deliver its superior technology and services has been central to Celtel Nigeria’s ability to achieve its objectives. We are confident that Motorola will successfully support our growth so that we can continue to deliver quality voice and advanced data services to our new and existing customers,” said Adebayo Ligali, CEO, Celtel Nigeria.

These latest orders follow orders valued at $50 million for a GSM turnkey expansion announced earlier this year by the two companies which enabled Celtel to increase its subscriber capacity and extend its coverage into new areas.

“We are delighted to continue working with Celtel and to support their rapid growth with the latest Motorola GSM solutions and services. This network expansion, which is part of Celtel’s comprehensive network expansion strategy, will expand and enhance the operator’s cellular network with EDGE capability for the rapid provision of advanced data services to its growing customer base. We look forward to continue working with Celtel as it goes from strength to strength,” said Ali Amer, vice president sales, Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility.

Motorola enjoys a decade-long successful strategic relationship with Zain (formerly MTC Group), which owns Celtel. Motorola has delivered technology solutions and professional services which have effectively supported the growth of Zain properties in the Middle East and Africa.

Celtel Nigeria has recently announced free calls to its subscribers every Sunday. The methodology is you recharge with a minimum of N500 every week to benefit one hour free call the following Sunday. If you recharge with N1000 every week, you will benefit two hours of free call the following Sunday. However, this free call is limited to Celtel networks only.

What is Unusual about It?
- You must recharge with at least N500 every week
- You must exhaust the N500 before the end of the week otherwise, you will not be entitled to the free call
- Other networks, like MTN is already offering its subscribers free late night calls for four hours everyday without forcing its subscribers to recharge.

Side Effects of Celtel Free Calls
- It is difficult to reach Celtel networks on Sundays; all you get is “Network Busy”
- If you managed to reach Celtel networks, the quality of the calls is bad
- If you use only Celtel networks, you may find it difficult to reach out or be reached on Sundays.

Suggestions to Celtel
- Limit free calls only to late night hours, like MTN. This will avoid congestion on the networks during the day time
- Give free calls without attaching any string to it; don’t force your subscribers to spend minimum of N500 every week to buy recharge cards in order to enjoy one hour free calls.

Bonus Airtime
However, some Celtel subscribers claimed to have received bonus air time on their phones for making the free calls. The criteria for receiving the bonus air time are not yet known.

Making Life Better

I have been getting some email requests for MMS/GPRS manual settings of Nigeria’s GSM Providers. For this reason, I decided to provide the manual settings below even though you may find some on the provider’s website. For most GPRS compatible handsets, MTN’s GPRS settings are automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as you insert the MTN SIM’s card the first time. Otherwise you have to do a manual setting. For Celtel and Globacom, you may still have to call Customer Centre for activation even after sending the activation request and saving the downloaded settings. For reasons unknown, Globacom GPRS did not work on the 0807 numbers I tried. I don’t have any data for MTEL’s GPRS settings.

If your mobile phone does not support Over-The-Air (OTA) settings for GPRS or MMS services offered by GSM Providers in Nigeria, find below the manual configurations for same:

GPRS SETTINGS

MTN Nigeria
Account Name = MTN GPRS
IP Address = 10.199.212.2
Port = 9201 (for WAP) or 8080 (for HTML)
Username = web
Password = web
Access Point Name (APN) = web.gprs.mtnnigeria.net

Globacom Nigeria
Provider: Glogwap
Access Point:Glogwap
Data Bearer: GPRS
Username: wap
Password: wap
Authentication: Normal
Gateway IP Address: 010.100.098.022
Homepage (url address): wap.gloworld.com
Connection security: Off
Port: (Leave Default or 9201)

CELTEL Nigeria
Wap Over GPRS Settings
Homepage: wap.ng.celtel.com /> Wap Gateway IP: 172.18.254.5
Port: 8080
Access point: Wap.ng.celtel.com
Username: (blank)
Password: (blank)
Authentication: normal

Internet Over GPRS Setting

Homepage: wap.ng.celetel.com /> Port: 8080
Access point: internet.ng.celtel.com
Username: (blank)
Password: (blank)
Authentication: normal

MMS SETTINGS

MTN Nigeria
Account Name = MTN MMS
Access Point Name (APN) = web.gprs.mtnnigeria.net
Service Centre Address = 10.199.212.8/servlets/mms /> IP Address = 10.199.212.2
Port = 9201 (for WAP) or 8080 (for HTML)
Username = web
Password = web

GLOBACOM Nigeria
Account Name: Glomms
Access Point Name (APN) : glomms
Homepage: mms.gloworld.com/mmsc IP address: 010.100.082.004
Port: 9201
Username: mms
Password: mms

CELTEL Nigeria
Access Point Name (APN) : access.mms
IP address: 172.18.254.5
Port: 8080
Username: mms
Password: mms

Note: There might be some other settings items in your mobile phone which I did not specify above. In that case, just leave your phone’s setting to the default.

I will update this as soon as I get information on MTEL GPRS settings. If you have it, kindly add it as a comment to this post. With this post, I don’t have to answer individual’s request as to GPRS settings for Nigeria’s GSM service providers, except in the case where there is a problem where the user thinks I can assist.