Newly listed Nigerian CDMA operator, Starcomms has announced plans to spend at least US$400 million over the next year to expand its network. The company has already invested some US$600 million since it launched its network in 2002.

 The company has set itself a target of reaching 2.5 million subscribers by the end of this year, rising to 5 million by the end of next year and a ten fold jump to 50 million by 2011.

The company was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last week and raised around US$60 million. "We have always wanted two sectors of the market, [those] being the oil and telecommunications sectors, represented in our market, said Binus Yaroe, the NSE's general manager of listing and quotations and a representative of the director general. The stock market floatation raised funding for the company, while also allowing two investors, Actis and ECP to reduce their holdings.

Starcomms says that it expects to start dividend payments to its shareholders in 2010, once it has completed the current phase of network expansion. The network is currently available in 14 major Nigerian cities namely Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Aba, Asaba, Kaduna, Benin and Zaria while preparations are in progress to put more cities on air this year

Estimates from the Mobile World report that the company is thought to have ended the first quarter with some 460,000 subscribers, although that is understood to have jumped sharply to 1.6 million at the end of June, according to statements from the company's CEO.

Source:cellular-news