The Mobility team was invited to attend the official launch of Etisalat Nigeria’s broadband mobile internet service (branded Easyblaze) at the Lagos Oriental Hotel.

Find below some key information about Easyblaze.

10 Quick Facts about Easyblaze

1. easyblaze is Etisalat’s high speed broadband internet service
2. It operates on a 3.75G HSPA+ technology that can achive top speeds of up to 42Mbps
3. HSPA+ means – High Speed Packet Access
4. HSPA+ is the latest release of the 3G technology versions
5. Etisalat is the only GSM operator in Nigeria to offer 3.75G HSPA+ broadband internet service.
6. easyblaze enables Etisalat subscribers faster internet browising and downloads, video calling, live video streaming, interactive online games, live music streaming online and more.
7. easyblaze is currently accessible in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Akwa, Nnewi, Warri, Kaduna, Kano, Zaria, Enugu, Onitsha, Aba, and Benin.
8. easyblaze has several data plans including 200MB, 500MB, 1.5GB, Night & Weekend, 3G and 6GB.
9. easyblaze is accessible using 3G enabled devices such as Smartphones, Tablets, USB modems, Routers and MiFis.

There are a number of new features available with this service as follows:

• Auto-renewal: Automatic renewal allows subscribers to purchase any of our data plans, as long as the subscriber has sufficient airtime credit in his account.
• Data Roll-Over: This allows a subscriber to rollover unused MB of the current data plan provided a new data purchase can be made before the end of validity period of the unused or active data plan.
• Product speed cap: Ability to apply cap on the speed per product and PAYG speed cap.

Apparently, Etisalat Nigeria is in partnership with Huawei for terminal supply, as a list of Huawei devices were available, including the sexy, budget Android smartphone, the Huawei U8180 “Gaga” phone, and the E5 Mifi device for connecting up to 5 devices via Wifi.

Easyblaze is currently the fastest mobile broadband internet service in Nigeria.

Etisalat Nigeria says that new and existing customers on their network are sset to enjoy enhanced service as they are now live on the submarine fibre optic cable system run by Main One Cable Company.

This makes Etisalat the first telecoms company to connect to Main One.

In a related news item, Globacom has announced that their own submarine cable system, Glo 1, will go live in August. That’s some days from now.

Telecoms subscribers have waited in anticipation to experience the difference that these two submarine cable systems will have on both uality of service and tariffs. The wait continues.

Globacom’s under-sea cable linking Nigeria with Europe has touched down in Lagos today September 5, 2009.

Before now, the entire country depended on only the SAT-3 cable under the monopoly of NITEL for cost-efficient high-speed access. Industry watchers have been in expectation of Glo-1 for months now, as its launch will undoubtedly impact on the cost and delivery of high-speed internet access in Nigeria.

Now that Glo-1 is here, when exactly do we begin to enjoy the services?

Source: CyberSchuulNews.

A user of this site recently submitted the following comment:

Yomi

I am getting fed up with all the sub standard internet services being rendered to us in this Country, mainly because of the speed. I started out with glo, it was a frustrating experience. By the way, can you confirm if glo is still rendering 3G services? I really dont think so.MTN was promising at the beginning, now they’ve joined the pack. Now i’m think of dumping MTN for Visa phone internet. I need your advice.

Let me start by saying that sub-standard Internet servicees in Nigeria is the story of our lives. From GSM/3G operators, through their CDMA counterparts, to dedicated Wi-Max/Wi-fi/ and cable ISPs, Nigeria internet users have stories of woes to tell.

Now, on to the questions posed by the commenter.

Yes; GloMobile is offering 3G services, and our experience here at MN is that they currently offer the most stable and reliable 3G/HSDPA service in the country. In our informed opinion, this is largely due to the fact that their bundle plans are available only on a contract basis – meaning that lots of people are not keen on taking it up.

Zain is relatively stable too, if you are lucky to be located within their very limited 3G/HSDPA coverage area.

MTN is undisputedly the worst in the 3G/HSDPA bracket at the moment. Dumping MTN for anything right now is a good move.

On the CDMA front, so far as I know, there is very little difference in quality of service being delivered by Visafone, Starcomms, and Multilinks. And, honestly, that is not saying much. We have too many tales of woes of customers subscribed to EVDO on these networks who are getting basic CDMA 1x speeds as a daily experience inspite of having EVDO coverage at their locations.

Just last week, I was a witness to an individual who so got frustrated with the crawly speeds he was getting on his EVDO connection in the Egbeda area that he went all the way to Yaba hoping to get a better EVDO connection. He was badly disappointed, because all he got was the same old crawly speeds, again inspite of EVDO coverage.

Also note that my responses are qualified with terms like “currently”, “for now”, etc. This is because the tables often turn unexpectedly, and in another few months the presently unreliable service may have found a new lease of life, or the currently stable and dependable service caught the plague. Choosing an internet service in Nigeria is often like walking a minefield.

I must also add that for some odd reason, there are pockets of people here and there who respond with glowing tales of some of the above-mentioned poor services. This means that inspite of the general experience, there is the chance that you can hit a jackpot with whatever service provider you choose to go with.

But since when did it become normal to depend on luck and chance for a service you have duly put down your hard-earned money for? The story of our lives.