CTS completes turnkey deal for pan-African telecoms operator Celtel

CTS, a leading provider of network planning, optimisation and spectrum management solutions including associated services, has successfully completed its contract with Celtel for its Ellipse Microwave Planning Tool Suite and for Planet EV, which CTS sells under a reseller agreement with Marconi Wireless.

Celtel International, headquartered in Hoofddorp, in the Netherlands, is a pan-African mobile communications group operating in 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and serving more than 8.5 million customers. To support its pan-African operations, Celtel purchased several Ellipse Microwave Planning and Planet EV licences. The two solutions are used for the planning and optimisation of the group’s transmission and radio networks. CTS was selected for its capacity to provide first-class implementation and support services across the company’s African operations and for the extensive and detailed engineering functions of both tools.

The contract included the installation, migration of existing technical data, training, and maintenance for Celtel’s operations in the African countries of Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Malawi, Chad, Niger, Kenya and Sudan.

All network data and licence management is centralised on the main server in Amsterdam which is connected to the national server of each operator. The centralised floating licence system optimises the use of the software for all the 13 operations of the group while reducing average licence cost. Fewer licences are needed to fulfil the planning needs of the whole group. Efficient network data management and planning is carried out through daily synchronisation and data updates between the central server and the regional servers.

Bayan Monadjem, Radio Planning Manager at Celtel, says, “We selected CTS as the Planet EV and Ellipse Microwave Planning solution allow us to optimise licence management for our African operations. This resulted in valuable economies of scale. Although network planning is the responsibility of each operating company, this system allows us to centralise planning at a corporate level and share data with our operating companies, fostering best practices. It will also contribute to the reduction of Celtel’s capital and operational expenditure.”

CTS will be present at the 3GSM World Congress, in Barcelona (Spain), from 13 to16 February 2006 (Hall 2, stand E113).