‘Yomi and ‘Dayo were at the West African International Telecommunications & Information Communication Technology Exhibition (W.Afri.Tel) yesterday and spent some time at the stands of various mobile networks and manufacturers.

There wasn’t much that was new happening on most fronts, but still there are a number of things worthy of a mention. Mobile-related exhibitors at the event include: Etisalat, GloMobile, MTN, Visafone, Multilinks Telkom, Anabel, and Mi-fone.

Detailed reports on the way.

Meanwhile, the exhibition is still on today through tomorrow, so if interested, Victoria Island is the direction you should be heading. More specifically, you’ll be driving into the premises of the Ocean View at 1415 Adetokunboh Ademola Street, adjacent the Bar Beach.

Pioneer CDMA operator, Intercellular, has not been visible lately. Having fallen on hard times, the operator currently has about 50, 000 active subscribers running on an outdated network.

But its new majority shareholder, Sudatel, has plans to inject $500 million into the company, re-build the network from scratch, and re-launch by 4th quarter of this year.

Source: Sudatel-owned Intercellular returns to Nigerian telecoms market (Technology Times)

Anyone remember Mobitel Nigeria? Yes; the CDMA operator that ran into troubled waters after the late President/CEO and telecoms veteran, Mr. Alaba Joseph, died in controversial circumstances in his office in September 2005. At the time, the company was facing a takeover bid from Intercontinental Bank Limited.

Well, there’s good news – Mobitel seems set to bounce back!

According to a news report by Technology Times, a consortium led by Omni Ventures Limited, a Lagos-based ICT services company which has acquired the entire operations and undertakings of Mobitel Limited is moving to return the phone company to the telecoms market.

Omni Ventures has now sealed a network rollout pact with VocaTel of Israel to return to its market for fixed and wireless voice, data and value added services targeting niche markets of SMEs and high-end users.

At a time that things are generally on the downward trend, this is a blast of fresh air. We need more competition and more innovation. Perhaps Mobitel’s return can supply just a little extra bit of that.

Source: TechnologyTimes: Mobitel Seals Network Rollout Deal

Ever heard of GiCell? GiCell is a new mobile operator with a National Unified Access Service License in its kitty.

GiCell is rolling out to cover locations in “four Local Government Areas in Adamawa State, two Local Government Areas of Borno State, Five Local Government Areas Of Cross Rivers State, Four Local Government Areas of Kwara State and Two Local Government Areas of Oyo State”, and locations in Bauchi State, among others. Source: The GiCell website.

According to this news item on TradeInvest Nigeria, GiCell is a mobile telephone operator offering voice and data services using CDMA technology. It is licensed to provide mobile, fixed telephony, international data access and long distance services. The company is planning its technical launch for 28 April 2009 and is aiming for one million subscribers in its first year of operation.

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.

Well, it looks like we missed Starcomms’ announcement of its WAP service back in December 2008. But its better late than never:

Starcomms Plc, Nigeria’s 4th largest telecommunications operator, has introduced the Starcomms WAP service. The Starcomms WAP service offers value added data applications, Ringtone, Games, Wallpaper, Truetones, MP3 tones, Animations etc to Starcomms CDMA Mobile subscribers through their WAP and data enabled handsets. With this new product, a Starcomms subscriber can access these services by launching the WAP Client in their WAP and data enabled handset, which will take the user to default WAP homepage – Starcomms WAP. This homepage will carry the link to the value added data application.

The customers will have access to a whole lot of features and functionalities like Downloads; which enables users to Download Content like Polyphonic Ringtones, Wallpapers and Games onto his Handset, Surf; which gives the customer the ability to Surf other WAP sites like Yahoo, Rediff etc. Other exciting content would be introduced from time to time.

According to the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Maher Qubain, the service will be available to all Starcomms subscribers whose handsets currently support WAP, such handsets include; Haier D1200, Nokia 6275, Moto K1, Motorola W385, Coolpad C288. The Company shall launch a wider varieties of handsets in the nearest future that shall also support the WAP application. Customers who currently have any of these handsets may access the service through the WAP browser on their handset.They however have to visit the nearest Starcomms shop for registration and update of their handset in order to be able to access the WAP service.

The Marketing Director, Starcomms, Manoj Vashisht equally promised a whole lot of other exciting contents on the Starcomms WAP portal. These includes special categories of contents ranging from Wallpapers, Animations, True tones, MP3 tones, Polytones, Video, Games, Cartoons, News, Themes, Monotones, Picture Message, Religious Content etc. The prices for the downloadable contents are expected to be highly competitive and affordable to all.

As introductory offer during the launch period, Starcomms intends to offer customers Free downloads on the Free Zone category. This will enable customers to understand the new application, and enjoy the new service.

Mr. Vashisht added that customers would be notified of the applicable charges whilst downloading the content to enable customers decide their choice of downloads. On the quality of content, efforts have been made to ensure that there are adequate local contents by creating special categories such as Nigerian Zone, African zone that incorporates contents such as Wallpapers, Truetones, Polytones etc. There are other categories like Hollywood, Soccer and Racing Zone, that also contain the top downloads.

You can download the complete press release (in PDF format): Starcomms Launches WAP

Here is my updated list of the best mobile internet deals at the moment. Because we currently have two types of mobile platforms running side-by-side in the country (GSM and CDMA), I am presenting one network per technology platform.

Both networks on my list offer a variety of packages, giving subscribers great choice in their respective terrains. Both networks also give subscribers the option of browsing directly on their phone or on PC (netbook, laptop, desktop, etc)

Zain Nigeria

Zain is a GSM-based mobile operator. Zain Mobile Internet is delivered on GPRS, EDGE (up to 234kbps), 3G and HSDPA (up to 1.8mbps), depending on coverage in your locality. Zain’s packages:

1. Pay As You Use
No bundle
Cost: 15kobo per kilobyte

2. Zain Day (24-hour bundle)
Bundled Data: 50MB
Cost: N500.00
Activation: Load N500 and dial: *141*712*3#

3. Zain Lite (24-hour bundle)
Bundled Data: 100MB
Cost: N1,000.00
Activation: Load N1,000 and dial: *141*712*4#

4. Zain Pro (24 hours for 30 days)
Bundled Data: 1GB
Cost: N5,000.00
Activation: Load N5,000 and dial: *141*712*1

5. Zain Max (24 hours for 30 days)
Bundled Data: 3GB
Cost: N10,000.00
Activation: Load N10,000 and dial: *141*712*2#

Zain Mobile Internet (ZMI) must be active on your line before you can subscribe to any of the above plans.

To activate ZMI, visit a Zain centre, call Customer Care on 113 or send an SMS with the word ‘internet phonebrand model’ to 232 e.g. “internet sonyericsson P910i” to receive your settings.

ZOOMmobile

ZOOMmobile is a CDMA-based operator, deploying both CDMA 1x (50Kbps – 100Kbps Upload and Download with bursts to 144Kbps) and EVDO Rev A (600Kbps-1,400Kbps Download with bursts to 2.0Mbps; 500Kbps-800Kbps Upload with bursts to 1.8Mbps), also depending on your location. ZOOMmobile internet packages include:

1. Easy Time (24 hours for 30 days)
Bundled Data: Unlimited
Cost: N10,000.00

2. Busy Time (24 hours for 14 days)
Bundled Data: Unlimited
Cost: N5,000.00

3. Rest Time (11pm to 6am for 30 days)
Bundled Data: Unlimited
Cost: N5,000.00

4. Relax Time (6pm to 11pm for 30 days)
Bundled Data: Unlimited
Cost: N5,000.00

5. Cool Time (Friday 8pm to Sunday 10pm for 30 days)
Bundled Data: Unlimited
Cost: N5,000.00

6. Day Time (8am to 6pm for 30 days)
Bundled Data: Unlimited
Cost: N7,000.00

Subscription for all above ZOOMmobile plans can be done at any ZOOMmobile centre.

It is amazing that in the year 2009 (not 1989) some of our local GSM service providers still ask customers to come to their offices or to place telephone calls to request for their lines to be provisioned in order to have access to the network’s data (or value added) services.

While deploying a data service is well appreciated, the networks should go a step further to make it convenient for subscribers to have access to these services.

For example, there’s no valid reason why the networks cannot provide their SIMs already provisioned for internet. It is a fact that at least MTN and Etisalat are doing it right in this regard. Etisalat especially is to be commended, for though being a new player in the Nigerian telecoms ecosystem, they are more forward looking in terms of user-friendly data provisioning than the older boys like Zain and GloMobile.

Surely, it cannot be so difficult for network operators to deploy over-the-air (OTA) configuration such that soon after inserting your SIM into a GPRS or 3G-enabled phone, the data settings are pushed automatically to the phone and the subscriber can simply launch his phone browser and start surfing the web away.

Both MTN and Etisalat are again the leaders in this department. And once again, Etisalat are getting two thumbs up from me for implementing this from the word go.

My experience with Etisalat is one I remember with fondness. I popped in my SIM into a phone, the settings were pushed to me via SMS, and within minutes I was browsing without having to go to their office, call for my line to be provisioned, or manually input any settings. I said to myself, “This is the way it should be“.

Network operators need to remember that the average phone user is not a geek, does not care to go beyond the basic menu of his phone, and would rather not be bothered with the extra hassles of getting value added services setup.

The average subscriber wants these services to work out-fo-the-box, and the networks that respond appropriately to this fact will have subscribers eating out of their hands. Mobile Data will become more mainstream when the hassles of data configuration are eliminated.

Convergence makes a lot of sense. Though it has its disadvantages, it has more going for it in an environment like ours.

Last Saturday, I was part of a discussion about the benefits of having private internet access. One of the key problems raised was that of the terrible power supply situation in the country. Someone pointed out that a monthly internet subscription becomes wasteful when there is no power supply to put the subscription to good use.

Of course, I did not need to mention that even with a power generator available, the subscription is still largely under-utilised, and even then the extra costs of running a generating set are just obscene.

I pointed out at that discussion – waving my Nokia E90 in the air – that only those of us who use connected mobile devices really put our subscription to full use – regardless of time, location and availability of public power.

If you need internet access, I recommend that you strongly consider a mobile device and internet subscription. This makes sense financially and functionally.

The E90, for example, in all its glory is cheaper than a laptop and gives you longer hours of usage on battery than a laptop does.

There are places where it would be foolish to take a laptop to e.g. your friend’s wedding, yet no-one would bat an eye-lid at seeing your communicator there. We must also not forget those outdated eateries that want to tantalize you but post bold signs that read: “The use of laptops is not allowed in here“. Of course, my E90 gets in all the time and gets used too. They are really clueless; aren’t they?

After church service on Sunday, a group of us were chatting and someone asked for the location of a cultural centre in Lagos. He needed to find his way there that afternoon. None of us present knew. But Google did – and my communicator was available. In a few minutes, he had the address he was looking for. Thank God for mobility!

The problem of text input is largely resolved on devices with QWERTY-layout keyboards. Copy and paste functionality exists on many of them, and most have capabilities to read and edit Office documents. The majority come with the ability to read PDF files as well. These things are computers – albeit very handy ones.

Honestly, if you are not a programmer, graphics designer and the like, you are on a budget and need an internet device and connection, instead of shelling out for a PC/Laptop and getting a fixed internet connection, you can have a single device with access to internet access anywhere.

Usually, people are hesitant in considering that some mobile devices can serve effectively as PC replacements. For what most people use their PCs for, many mobile devices are more than qualified as PC replacements.

If you have questions on this, I’d be delighted to help you sift through the maze of mobility to narrow down your search for the right device for you. So, post your questions below!

CDMA network operator, ZOOMmobile(formerly Reltel Wireless), is offering a range of smartphones for N14,999 each this season.

The available smartphone options include:

1. Treo 700p
2. Palm Centro
3. Motorola Q
4. Treo 755p
5. Samsung IP 830W

Just pick an 0707 hot number and any one of the above listed smartphones.

In our opinion, this offer is a steal.

At times, it is easy to forget the progress that has been made over a period of time. The mobile sector is particularly one in which innovations come by the day.

For me, it has been years of adventure in mobility, from my first phone, a very basic Motorola T2288 to my present, the Nokia E90 communicator. The T2288 had a WAP 1.1 browser, I used the browser only on a few occassions and that in the later part of its lifetime with me – and, was it limited or what?

And do you remember those horrible antennas that stick out at the top of most phones then?

In contrast, the E90 has a highly capable web browser (that matches Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 in some ways and is better in others), office editing tools, a capable e-mail client, instant messaging apps, and much more. I used to have a desktop at home and a laptop. I no longer do. My E90 fulfills their roles so well that i only use a PC at the office now. The present crop of devices outgun and out-everything mobile that was available then. They also outgun the PCs of the late 90s and early 2000s.