NatCom Development and Investment Limited (trading as Ntel), the company that acquired the core assets of NiTel/MTel (in liquidation), made its first Voice over Long-Term Evolution call in Nigeria on Thursday.

The test VoLTE call was made at 3.30pm, at Ntel’s new Tier III data centre located on Lagos Island.

VoLTE calls are enabled over a carrier’s high-speed data network instead of a voice network. Voice over LTE calls also connect faster upon dialing and feature ultra-clear high-definition voice quality.

The VoLTE call was completed in partnership with Original Equipment Manufacturers, Ericsson of Sweden and Sony Electronics of Japan. This follows Ntel’s first data call on January 18, 2016 and its first SIP voice call on February 18, 2016.

With the development, Ntel said it would commence work with Nigeria’s other mobile operators and international partners to perform cross-network VoLTE calls.

“This will ensure that Ntel’s customers can connect with each other as easily as they can to both customers in Nigeria and to those elsewhere in the world: a network now comprising more than seven billion telephones, globally,” the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Kamar Abass, said.

According to him, the high-definition VoLTE call was made through an Ntel Subscriber Identity Mobile card, “and is set to be a significant differentiating factor for Ntel as it progresses with the rollout of Nigeria’s largest Advanced 4G/LTE network, due to be launched shortly.”

The successful test call, according to Abass, “is confirmation that the key network elements are now in place to support the full commercial launch of premium integrated voice, video and data services over 4G/LTE.”

He added, “The Ntel network is built on the 900/1800 Mhz, which are the most efficient propagation frequencies for the deployment of 4G/LTE technology.”

The company made its first test data call in Lagos on January 18, 2016, a few days after the NatCom Chairman, Tunde Ayeni, appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Communications.

Speaking during his appearance, Ayeni had told lawmakers that Ntel was committed to investing over $1bn to the rollout of commercial services, starting in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.