The Director, Regional Operations, West Region, Airtel, Mr. Segun Macauley, says that the company has spent about $3.7bn for infrastructure upgrade, technology mapping and capacity expansion.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin on Monday, he said the company had migrated to 3.75G and was already testing its 4G. He added that it would soon finalise modalities to migrate to 4G nationwide.

He said that the company had also invested in higher definition, adding that its huge investment was to enable it to be ahead of its competitions, boost its services and continue to satisfy its numerous subscribers.

He added that the upgrade and investment in technology had also significantly stopped or reduced to the bearable limits call drops.

Macauley identified power and insecurity as the major challenges of telecommunication companies, which he noted were not peculiar to Airtel.

He stated that with the improvement in power supply, there would be reduction in call rates in the country.

According to him, Airtel is in the fourth position among other communication networks in the world.

This, he claimed, had placed it in a vantage position to render world-class services and adopt global best practices as well as ensuring its presence in the developing countries of the world.

He said, "We are ready for the next five years’ generation of Nigerians.  We have excess capacity on our hands and we also invested in higher definition. We are scaling up. One thing in a competitive market is that subscribers and customers get value for their money.

"We are in the present at 3.75G. But if we stay at that level, our competitions will catch up with us and we are going to lose subscribers.  Right now, we are testing our 4G in the south region."

Macauley stated that the company had invested much in the provision of amenities, schools, employment creations and security as part of its corporate social responsibilities.

He said that Kwara State was receiving a priority attention from Airtel because it links the western part of Nigeria to the northern part.

He added that the state had witnessed safety of lives and property which had helped in attracting both indigenous and foreign direct investment into the state.