By Peter Egwuatu
The consolidation in the Nigerian banking sector is likely to shift to the telecommunication industry in the next 12 months.

Managing Director/CEO, Starcomms Plc, the only quoted telecom entity on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Logan Pather has disclosed  stressing that there is the possibility of  consolidation in the telecommunication industry owing to increasing competition.

In his words, “There is the possibility of consolidation in the telecom market within the next 12 months. This is because of the proliferation in the telecom industry.  The consolidation will not be regulatory-induced but self (entity) induced.  So, ahead of this, we are already thinking of advancing our technology. Let me tell you that in the next four years, 2014 or 2015, GSM is likely to be phased out.”

Pather, during an interactive session with newsmen in Lagos revealed that Long Term Evolution ( LTE) Application system will replace the GSM and CDMA in years to come in Nigeria LTE is the most efficient mobile broadband technology for providing excellent user experience.

LTE provides extremely fast broadband experience and is defined for more frequency bands than any other technology. It can be used on paired and unpaired spectrum allocations making it a truly global standard.

According to him, “Our current facility has some of the features of LTE, so all we need is to fine tune our system and upgrade our software with minimal cost we will operate LTE.

Wireless Equipment Providers worldwide are stepping up their development programs to support the large growth potential of LTE deployments. To gain an edge in the market requires being early to market with differentiated features.

The Starcomms boss stated that the telecommunication products are dynamic and challenging, stressing that consumers will continue to dictate what they want.

According to him, we in Starcomms are thinking of ways to add value to our customers because we are committed to them. There is high cost of doing business in Nigeria and it has been affecting our revenue. So we are planning of going into partnership with other organisations to provide alternative power supply that will be regular and cheap.