Posted by The Guardian on
The controversial letter by William J. Jefferson, a U.S. congressman, found in the U.S. house of Vice President Abubakar Atiku, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The controversial letter by William J. Jefferson, a U.S. congressman, found in the U.S. house of Vice President Abubakar Atiku, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
I wish to bring a project to your attention by which a U.S. company desires to invest over USD $60,000,000 to provide the high speed Internet service to Nigeria over NITEL's copper wire infrastructure. Under the proposal, there would be no costs to NITEL or the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To the contrary, the project proposes to pay substantial amount to NITEL for the use of its copper wire and for the co-location of D-Slam and switches at NITEL facilities of approximately USD $5,000,000 in Year 1; USD $28,000,000 in Year 2; USD $69,000,000 Year 3; USD $103,000,000 in Year 4; and USD $106,000,000 in Year 5 and thereafter. This would add substantially to NITEL's operating income and to the value of NITEL in its efforts to privatize.
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However, on 3rd June 2005, to the surprise of Rosecom and its U.S. partner, NITEL issued a letter offering Rosecom an entirely new deal from the one offered in its 29 April, 2005 Quotation to Rosecom and making no reference to Rosecom's acceptance of NITEL's earlier offer (Attachment "C). Indeed, the 3 June 2005 letter from NITEL offered Rosecom the right to resell NITEL's Internet service to be supplied through NITEL's own ADSL-based network services. Upon a further search, it would appear that NITEL has decided to acquire its own D-Slams and to establish it own wholesale Internet service, using an ADSL model. The equipment NITEL is acquiring is a Chinese product. The Chinese-produced D-Slam is technically incapable of delivering guaranteed speeds of one (1) megabit over copper wire for the distances required, so that the service to the end users in Nigeria will be very slow and expensive. Additionally, NITEL will have to incur the considerable expense of purchasing the D-Slams whereas the Rosecom project is presented at no costs to NITEL, with Rosecom and its U.S. partners paying all of the costs incurred.
From the point of view of U.S. business, it is very important to be able to rely on the acceptance of an offer as a deal if U.S Investment is to be encouraged in Nigeria. Thus it is important that NITEL recognize the acceptance by Rosecom, on behalf of itself and its U.S. partner, and permit them to launch their project in Nigeria as expected. Both Rosecom and its U.S. partner have already incurred considerable expense in preparing for the launch subsequent to receiving NITEL's referenced Quotation.
It is important to note, that for NITEL to honor Rosecom's acceptance of its offer presented in its 29 April 2005 Quotation does not mean that it must abandon the use of the Chinese technology that it appears to be purchasing for its D-Slams, nor that NITEL abandon its plan to offer its own ADSL-based services for resale to ISPs. Rosecom and its U.S. partner believe that their product can compete favorably with any ADSL project. Therefore, the U.S. partnership seeks to co-locate its D-Slams at NITEL facilities along with any other D-Slams NITEL may desire to use and pay NITEL may desire to use and pay NITEL the same prices accepted by Rosecom in its 11 May 2005 acceptance of NITEL's offer.
It would be a huge step forward on building a stronger reputation for the business climate in Nigeria, bring great benefits to the Nigerian economy, and bring an extraordinary amount of recurring revenue to NITEL, if it would be possible in your wisdom to support the request of the U.S/Nigeria partnership for NITEL to permit its project to be carried out side-by-side with any other ADSL/Internet-over-copper-wire solution that is willing to invest in providing high speed Internet access to the country of Nigeria.
I hope you will be able to check into this matter with the Managing Director of NITEL prior to your trip to the U.S. in July 2005. I look forward to having a chance to meet with you then to discuss or to conclude this matter at that time.
Thank you and may God continue to bless your service to Nigeria, Africa and the world community.