[SatNews] Africa’s largest infrastructure sharing, co-location and managed services provider, Helios Towers Nigeria (HTN) has signed a 120-site co-location deal with Gateway Business Nigeria, a pan African telecommunications service provider, for a nationwide network roll out in Nigeria. The deal follows Gateway Business’ successful roll out of its award winning AirlinkTM and MetroLinkTM wireless broadband services, using the same 10.5GHz solution in Lagos.

Helios Towers Nigeria (HTN) has over 1,000 sites nationwide and will provide end-to-end co-location services to Gateway Business Nigeria, the leading provider of communications services to multinational corporations working in Africa.  Gateway Business delivers the highest quality, most comprehensive and affordable national, regional and international connectivity services on the continent.

Gateway Business is building a pan-African MPLS network that will cover every major African city and has acquired 10.5GHz spectrum licenses for point to multipoint connectivity in Nigeria. The company will roll out wireless broadband services across 10 Nigerian states in 2010, with Port Harcourt and Abuja scheduled to go live in the next few weeks. A further 26 states will go live through 2011.

The partnership will enable Gateway Business to roll out services quickly through the co-location on HTN sites, with guaranteed uptime and quality of service and reduced operating expenses.  Gateway Business currently provides a comprehensive suite of communications services to over 1,200 corporations working in Africa.

Gateway Business owns and operates Africa’s most advanced regional and international networks, supporting the requirements of the continent’s voice and data users and manages  diverse satellite, subsea and fiber connectivity across over 40 African countries. The network provides global connectivity for the continent through major teleport and switching facilities in Europe, the Americas and Africa.