Leadership (Abuja)
Ramat Omaye Yakubu
15 October 2008
analysis
In recent years, the Nigerian telecommunication market has experienced tremendous growth and development. Since the advent of the GSM companies and their counterparts in the wireless phone categories, this sector of the economy has been agog with beehive of activities. Alongside these are the Internet Service Providers (ISP) companies further enhancing the reach and coverage of not only voice calls but of e-mails telecommuting and teleconferencing, all representing and enhancing the growth of business activities and living standard of the people.
From the afore-mentioned, it is no doubt that tele-communication has greatly improved the economy of our dear nation and has created job opportunities for its citizens. It has proved to be one of the highest and even well paying employers of labour. Access to family and friends has greatly improved and even other services provided. Life and wellbeing personal services like music downloads, sports, internet facilities, games, are avilable to consumers. These are some of the numerous services presented but there are houcker dark sides.
Telecom would have been a perfect gift from heaven for Nigerians was it not marred by certain and rather unnecessary service/network hitches. These are predominant in Nigeria alone. A research conducted by a body on telecommunication revealed that Nigeria telecommunication system is the least reliable and most expensive in the world. One would hope that with call tariffs so high, subscribers would enjoy quality service, uninterrupted and noise-free calls. But any phone user in this country will agree that this is not so. GSM companies accept responsibilities for the poor call reception/network but put the blame of high tariff on the regulatory authorities. While fingers are being pointed and blames placed, subscribers keep paying for services they never enjoy. This takes us to the various companies in this sector.
The Zain service provider which has undergone a few transformation of identity, from Econet to Vmobile, Celtel and now Zain. Nigerians expect more in terms of lower tarriffs, wider coverage and better reception rather than branding. MTN, a foreign service provider, is the next on the track. This network has proved solid and consistent, but lacks flexibility and insensitivity to subscribers, except for some friendly packages which not everybody enjoys.
Globacom came after a long wait with its inflated promises of lower tariff and better services. The advent of this indigenous network was welcomed with great sigh and relief, but like others, it has to contend with administrative and political witch-hunting. Its tariff is still as high as the rest. But one very important revolution is the per-second billing which Globacom introduced in the market. This caused quite a revolution in the market and other companies had to follow, else the go out of business. This really revealed the airtime purchase of subscribers. Tariff rate is still the same, whether it is paid in bits or full. Right about now a player is getting ready to enter the arena of business: this one is called Etisalat from the Middle East. The question everyone is asking is: Is this going to be the same old story or are we to expect any changes? Nigerians are waiting in anticipation.
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