This is the second part of the article, ‘Nigeria: Two sides to GSM at 10′.

We all know the saying, “The customer is always right”. However, although we’ve had GSM for ten years now, there are still issues that leave one wondering if subscribers are at the heart of providers’ decision making.

The GSM market in Nigeria is very lucrative for service providers considering that none of them have folded up and even more licenses are being sought after. Service providers need the subscribers to stay in business. Treat subscribers right or risk low patronage and being thrown out of business; right?

Considering the fact that mobile providers and mobile subscribers need one another to survive, there should be mutual respect and trust.

Billing
In 2001, when GSM arrived, a line was sold for as high as N20,000. Call tariffs were as high as N50 per minute, and as low as N25 per minute for on-net calls. Back then, we didn’t even have per second billing.

Although today things are a lot different with lines going for next to zero naira, per second billing now available, and much lower call rates, we still see some tariff plans that leave one wondering if the customers are thought of at all.

Service providers run adverts, telling customers of bargain rates. How often do they tell us that there are hidden agenda to these packages, capable of robbing us of our money?

Why would I activate a new tariff plan, and be robbed of my benefits from the previous package without a warning?

Why should I be slammed with a caller tune I didn’t ask for and be billed continuously for it?

Quality of Service
Not much has changed from what we started with in terms of network delivery – network congestion is still the order of the day.

Error messages which do not really tell us the situation of things are still a part of our daily calls. Examples:

- Sorry your call cannot be completed at the moment.

- Sorry your account is too low, please load an all in one card (even when you have surplus airtime)

- The number you are calling is not available at the moment (even if you are staring at the phone with full network signal)

- The number you are calling is incorrect (even though its a number you’ve always dialed)

- The number does not exist on the GLO network (I understand an MTN number not being on the GLO network, but when the number dialed is a registered GLO line?)

- This number does not have the facilities to receive calls.

Do these error messages tell us the truth, or is it just a case of their systems being overcrowded with call requests?

Customer Support
Ten years on, and you still can’t call customer care of network providers and receive prompt response. The calls either do not go through or you are kept on hold for a while, and at times, even after being put on hold, you can’t be attended to.

Operators’ service and quality delivery is inconsistent. In the books of these operators, it seems that living in a small metropolitan city is a curse. Should it be so? Considering that we all get charged the same amount for calls made and data used.

People visit customer care centres for days without getting solutions to their problems. Its either the server is down, or something else.

In July, the Lagos State House of Assembly urged the Federal Government to intensify its statutory monitoring of the activities of telecommunications companies in the country. The house specifically mentioned “the poor services being rendered by these telecommunications outfits in Nigeria”.

We shall hope that something good comes out of this. In the meantime, what have beeng your experiences – sweet and/or bitter in the hands of our GSM network providers?

The buzz is that Samsung is planning to release a cross-platform messenger service, ChatON. This is a group chat app that combines texts, images and video messaging from Android, Blackberry, iOS, and BadaOS.

We’ve got Yahoo, Facebook Chat and WhatsApp, among other instant messaging services. Will ChatON hit it big, or will it be another white elephant project?

Most importantly, we ask you, our reader, Will you use ChatON?

In an unconfirmed report, Samsung has supposedly released a 2000mAh extended battery for the Galaxy S II. The extended battery means bigger bulk, but the S II is already so slim that this shouldn’t be an issue for those who need more battery time.

Source

This is Nigeria. It is the year 2011 and we are counting 10 years of the introduction of the Global System of Media communication (GSM) into the country.

Before the introduction of GSM technology, the number of connected phone lines in the country was 450,000 out of an estimated population of 120 million people.

Like most things, GSM has had its good, bad, and ugly sides, just like the two sides to a coin. This article looks at the first part, the positive effects.

GSM was received warmly when it landed here on our shores. Why wouldn’t we have received it warmly? A revolution was about to occur. We had been denied communications. Our lives and the economy were about to get better.

Our Lives
We communicate better now than before the advent of GSM. In addition to standard communications, we record spectacular moments of our lives, listen to music, transfer videos, install and run applications on our device, etc.

Our social life is better as our relationships, friendships, are kept alive through communication.

Even our conduct of business has taken a different turn.

Our Economy
Recently, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) pegged the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the industry at about US$15billion.

GSM has stimulated significant job creation, with a tremendous impact in the economy. The sector is said to be the highest employer of skilled & unskilled labour in recent times.

Various sectors of the economy, have witnessed unprecedented growth with the integration of GSM technology (voice and data) into the running of corporate organisations.

The financial sector is one of such sectors. With the introduction of mobile banking, a customer has full access to his or her bank account right at his or her finger tip.

Now we have e-health, e-banking, e-security, e-education etc.

On the corporate social responsibility front, individuals and communities have benefited from the actions of service providers and phone companies. Some have provided educational facilities, medical facilities, sponsored health campaigns, and events, among others.

Between 2001 and 2007, the federal government earned over US$ 2.5 billion from spectrum licensing fees alone. Taxation and import duties have also contributed to the revenue of the federal government.

How has GSM positively affected your life and business? As an individual, how do you feel going through a day without your GSM mobile phone?

Fansconnect Online Limited, a social media company, unveiled Afrinolly’ a mobile phone based application which allows users to stream African entertainment bundles. Built for both the Android and Blackberry devices, Afrinolly provides access to African movie trailers, music videos, comedy online, celebrity gist and gossip, latest entertainment news and many more.

AfriNolly is a finalist of the on-going ‘Google Android Developer Challenge – Sub-Saharan Africa’.

Speaking at the Afrinolly media parley held on Friday, August 26 at Jade Chinese Restaurant in Lagos, Chike Maduegbuna, the CEO of Fansconnect Online, assures that Afrinolly is a user friendly package as it is compatible with the popular mobile browser Opera Mini. He further highlighted that the application will be a useful tool that will enable African movie enthusiast to easily access content.

“AfriNolly has global appeal as more people are enthralled with Nollywood and other African entertainment industry” Maduegbuna explained.

In Group photo left-right (Kenneth Omeruo, TechTrends; Loy Okezie, IT Blogger; Chike Maduegbuna, CEO FansConnect; Yomi Adegboye, Editor Mobility; Makinde Adeagbo, DropBox Software Engineer)

The Guest Speaker, Makinde Adeagbo (former Facebook employee, now with DropBox) was proud that Nigerians residing in Nigeria could conceptualize and build an application of international quality. He further noted that the app would further enhance the growth and development of the entertainment industry in Africa.

Also speaking at the media parley, the company’s Creative Intelligence Analyst, Bobola Oniwura, said the application is created to get people to interact and talk about African movies, music and comedies. Tope Omotunde, Fansconnect Online’s Head of Technology, also opined that the application will enlighten people about what is happening in the entertainment world and enable them have access to the world of entertainment.

Afrinolly will be officially launched and open for download at www.afrinolly.com on Wednesday, 7th September 2011.

With what has been tagged “fantastic visa bundles”, VISAFONE has crashed its on-net voice tarrif again.

According to Mr Joseph Ushigiale, the head of coperate communications, “On this bundles, customers would make Visafone to Visafone calls at less than 1kobo per second and 50 kobo per minute”.

This morning, we are glad to announce the completion of our transition from a national brand to a global brand. As such, we will be dropping the “Nigeria” in our name and simply be called “Mobility” from now.

Our URL stays the same at www.mobility.com.ng.

Months ago, we began this transition, and we are delighted at the progress that we have made till date. Because we are based here in Lagos, Nigeria, you can be sure that we will continue to carry Nigeria-specific content. But as a truly global brand, we will now also carry content from a wide diversity of countries.

You know the way we roll – we get better and better. Tell your friends and colleagues. At Mobility, we cover all things mobile!

Some of you must have observed my silence here for about a week. Well, I have been ill. I am much better now, thanks.

My wife and I were having a good time watching some of the tons of videos uploaded to Youtube for the Oliver Dance video competition when I got naughty and decided to record something too.

With a Nokia E7 available, my wife was co-opted as an emergency cameraman. To keep the video size down, we set the E7 to shoot in TV high quality mode instead of HD. After shooting, I still converted the file to Web/email format, so its further compressed from the original 88MB file to a mere 9.8MB size.

In case you missed it, D’banj has a new single out titled “Oliver”, and his crew have setup a competition centred on the track. To participate in the competition yourself, simply record a video clip of yourself or your group dancing/jonzing to the Oliver song, upload to YouTube and email the link to oliver@mohitsrecords.com

The videos will be judged based on how entertaining they are.

PRIZES

1st: $2500

2nd: $2000

3rd: $1500

4th: $1000

5th: $500

Top 10 entries will be part of the Official Oliver video

Top 50 gets a FREE Koko Mobile Handset.

What do you think of my video? Should I mail the link to Mo’Hits?

Download the MP3 file
Download Oliver by D’banj

TrueBranches, an online export/import service company, has introduced a free BlackBerry mobile app to bring its services closer to its customers. With this new mobile app Nigerians will be able to buy items in US stores using their BlackBerry mobile phones and have them delivered to them in Nigeria. The BlackBerry app also enables merchants in Nigeria to sell their products to the US market.

The TrueBranches mobile app is an extension of the website located at www.truebranches.com. It is aimed at bringing its services closer to its customers and empowering them to access its services from anywhere without restriction.

TrueBranches offers two core services namely the Buy USA and the Buy Africa services. The Buy USA service enables businesses and individuals in Nigeria and all across Africa to buy from the US and have them delivered to their chosen address in Africa. The Buy Africa service, on the other hand gives people living in the United States, abroad and within Africa easy access to Nigerian based merchants with plans for Ghanaian and South African merchants.

The TrueBranches blackberry mobile application can be downloaded using this link http://www.truebranches.com/index.php or directly from the homepage www.truebranches.com.

Samsung has announced four new Android phones on their Galaxy brand running Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Key specs include:

Galaxy Y

• 3-inch QVGA (320×240) TFT display
• 832MHz processor
• 2MP camera
• Bluetooth 3.0
• 1200mAh battery

Galaxy Y Pro

• 2.6-inch QVGA (320×240) TFT display
• 832MHz processor
• 2MP camera
• Bluetooth 3.0
• 1200mAh battery

Galaxy M Pro

• 2.66-inch HVGA (480×320) TFT display
• 1GHz processor
• 5MP camera
• Bluetooth 3.0
• 1350mAh battery

Galaxy W

• 3.7-inch WVGA (800×480) TFT LCD
• 1.4GHz single-core processor
• 5MP camera
• 1500mAh battery

Shortly after pushing out the Symbian Anna update to owners of existing Symbian smartphones, Nokia has unveiled the next OS update, Belle.

We are not new to Belle here, as one of the MobilityNigeria team members, NgDude, recently flashed his N8 to a leaked version and put up screenshots for all to enjoy. However, it is exciting news that Nokia has officially unveiled the update.

Also, three Belle-running devices have been announced – 600, 700, and 701. All three run a 1GHz processor and are due out “from 3rd quarter 2011″. That’s July to September i.e. in the next one month.

Hopefully, that means owners of existing devices like the N8, C7, C6-01, E7, E6 and X7 – who are all due for the update – should expect it on their devices in October or November.

Good work, Nokia!

Today, RIM is launching the beta of the Native SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS, which will allow game developers to code in C/C++ environment and take advantage of a deeper API set.

To gain access to these new tools and start creating and porting applications for the BlackBerry Tablet OS developers can sign up to participate in the closed beta program at http://03268fe.netsolhost.com/bbbeta/ Interested developers should apply to the beta quickly as space is limited and will be granted on a first come first served basis.

What can developers do?
Using the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, developers can create rich and visually stunning 2D and 3D games for the BlackBerry PlayBook. The Native SDK allows developers to take direct advantage of the power that is inherent in the BlackBerry PlayBook. Developers will be able to build high performance, multi-threaded games. A great example of the interface and graphics that can be built is Need For Speed ( http://blogs.blackberry.com/2011/02/blackberry-playbook-need-for-speed-demo-video/ ).

The Native SDK supports accelerometer, device orientation and other device features, as well as a number of POSIX compliant libraries, which will help developers that are porting existing games.

The Native SDK includes the QNX® Momentics Tool Suite, which is an Eclipse-based integrated development environment. QNX Momentics provides memory profiling, application debugging, and memory usage statistics. This will help developers as they debug sophisticated programs, including hardware accelerated OpenGL applications.

More information on the fast and efficient APIs provided by the Native SDK and associated developer benefits can be found at http://devblog.blackberry.com/2011/08/nativesdk-for-blackberry-tablet-os-closed-beta.