Ericsson's recent hand over its millionth GSM base station to operator MTN Nigeria was good reason for both companies to celebrate.
Since its introduction in 1991, GSM technology has connected more than 3 billion subscribers across the world. Ericsson's market share of 35 percent means that a billion of these subscribers are accessing their networks through Ericsson base stations.
The scale of GSM base station manufacturing and delivery has contributed to the continuing expansion of GSM networks around the world. Scale means lower prices and lower ownership costs, important factors when selling base stations to mobile operators in high-growth markets.
Nigeria is reporting the fastest growth in the West Africa region. And Magnus Mchunguzi, Ericsson's key account manager for MTN Nigeria, says this growth will continue. "Penetration is actually quite low today," he says. "There are about 30 million subscribers, with a national population of 150 million. The estimated growth figures suggest there will be at least 50 million subscribers by 2010."
Distributing and installing GSM base stations, though, has not been entirely easy.
"When you come to Nigeria, you have to bring your own infrastructure - you have to do the roads, the water and the power. At most sites there is no power, so we have to run our own generators 24-7. Here you have every kind of extreme challenge," Mchunguzi says.
