Nigeria’s largest 3G CDMA Mobile network, Starcomms Limited, has activated its new 07028 mobile code.

AfricaCDMA has gathered that Starcomms is activating the new number codes in a bid to actualize the national unified license granted it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Starcomms according to a statement made available introduced these numbers into the market in early February 2007.

The new range of numbers operates on the CDMA 2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) platform, and will enable subscribers enjoy the roaming mobility that was once the exclusive of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) lines. The statement added that the new codes offers superior voice clarity, flexibility and mobility, enabling subscribers to use their phones in different parts of the country, besides eliminating the challenge of inter-connectivity between GSM and CDMA technologies.
Starcomms’ Commercial Director, Mr. Prakash Pantham, commenting on the new codes stated that ”We have planned for this for about three years because we realized long ago that this day will come; we are set to match our pedigree in the business. We are excited to pull this through,”
The unified license gave the company a wide range of telecommunications options including the operation of fixed wireless, fax, data, mobile telephony, long distance, national, international mobile and high speed internet services.
With this development, Starcomms, which is closing in on the half million mark subscription base, is set to replicate the feat it achieved with the deployment of its world-class mobile broadband internet access service, a CDMA 2000 1X EV-DO powered technology.
There are already signs of anxiety in some quarters as the kind of influence, power and money which the GSM networks have enjoyed since the introduction of GSM six years ago will be significantly whittled down with the entry of an aggressive player like Starcomms with its robust financial clout and array of value-adding products and services.
Pantham said Starcomms is not unprepared for the competition that will ensue with the GSM networks as the company will focus essentially on providing first class services that will meet and probably surpass subscribers’ expectations.
He stated emphatically that the company will draw motivation from its niche areas as new and robust technologies and systems; innovative and aggressive pricing of mobile phones and tariffs as well as impeccable product and service innovations. He also hinted that the company is considering bringing into the country CDMA-compliant handsets in very large quantities to ensure that customers will not have problems switching to the new mobile lines. Starcomms has tied up with certain leading OEM vendors to develop and customize CDMA mobile handsets exclusively for the Nigerian market. “The Nigerian consumer is extremely discerning, and demands very high quality standards, and we are working very hard to provide them with world-class CDMA mobile handsets,” Pantham said. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), an advanced Third Generation (3G) wireless technology, unlike the GSM, is a much more efficient and cost-effective technology that can be conveniently handled by most subscribers.

The system allows subscribers on the Starcomms network access to broadband high-speed wireless internet services capable of achieving peak data rates with a download speed of up to 2.4 Mbps and an average speed of 300 to 600 Kbps. It will also enable subscribers watch clear video, movies and broadcast over their 3G-enabled mobile handsets.
The CDMA technology consistently provides better capacity for voice and data communications than other commercial mobile technologies, allowing more subscribers to connect at any given time, and it is the common platform on which 3G technologies are built.
It is a “spread spectrum” technology, allowing many users to occupy the same time and frequency allocations in a given band or space, as it were. As its name implies, CDMA assigns unique codes to each communication to differentiate it from others in the same spectrum. In a world of finite spectrum resources, CDMA enables many more people to share the airwaves at the same time than do alternative technologies.
CDMA is the foundation for 3G services: the two dominant IMT-2000 standards, CDMA2000 and WCDMA, are based on CDMA. Specifically, the CDMA2000 is the leader of the 3G revolution.
The world is demanding more from wireless communication technologies than ever before as more people around the world are subscribing to wireless communications. Third-Generation wireless data services and applications - such as wireless email, web, digital picture taking/sending, assisted-GPS position location applications, video and audio streaming and TV broadcasting - and wireless networks are doing much more than they did just a few years ago
CDMA2000 1xEV-DO currently deployed by Starcomms is a part of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), approved 3G standards technologies. They deliver increased network capacity to meet growing demand for wireless services and high-speed data services. It comes as an improvement on the CDMA2000 1X, the world’s first 3G technology commercially deployed in October 2000.

CDMA is the fastest growing wireless technology and it will continue to grow at a faster pace than any other technology. It is the platform on which the 3G advanced services are built.
Currently, there are just a little over 45 million subscribers in the CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, the latest version of the technology all over the world, bringing global use of all ranges of CDMA to a little over 353 million. Nigeria is the fastest growing telecoms market in Africa hence the pertinence of the move by Starcomms to expand mobile voice as a leading national service provider.
Remarkably, this foray by the company will further empower Nigerians to communicate more effectively and affordably as the technology base of the 3G CDMA offers greater clarity than is currently prevalent.