Great things are happening in the Nigerian mobile space indeed. While we were all still waiting for the iPhone to come to a GSM network, Etisalat snuck up behind us all and brought us the Galaxy Tab.

The Tab is a 7-inch Android-powered tablet with the following specs:

• 2G – GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE
• 3G (HSUPA 5.76Mbps, HSDPA 7.2Mbps)
• OS: Android 2.2 (Froyo)
• Display: 7.0 inch TFT-LCD, WSVGA (1024 x 600)
• Processor: Cortex A8 1.0GHz Application Processor with PowerVR SGX540
• Camera: 3 MP Camera with Auto-Focus and LED Flash
• 1.3MP front camera for Video Telephony
• Adobe Flash 10.1 player support
• Full HD video playback supporting MP4/DivX/WMV/H.264/H.263
• Up to 7h movie playback
• TV-out
• Thinkfree Office Suite
• 30 pin connector
• WiFi 802.11n
• Bluetooth® 3.0
• GPS, with A-GPS support
• 16G / 32G internal memory with up to 32G external memory slot
• RAM: 512 MB
• Size: 190.09 x 120.45 x 11.98mm
• Weight: 380g
• Battery: 4,000mAh

The Etisalat Galaxy Tab offer gives you:

• A free Etisalat SIM card
• Free monthly voice [25 minutes], Text [25 SMS] and data [250MB] bundles for a 12-month duration. The bundle is awarded on the first day of every month for 12 months beginning from the day of activation. This way, you get the feeling of availability of free services every month for 1 year.
• Free platinum 0809 special number
• Access to installmental payments and consumer loans (terms and conditions apply)

Source

According to today’s edition of The Vanguard newspaper, the package is available for N125,000.

I just put up my X10 Mini Pro for sale earlier today. This humongous device – the Galaxy Tab – is what I need for my mobile office and entertainment needs. For telephony, I’ll get a non-smartphone with stellar voice/SMS capabilities (perhaps a Nokia C3?).

Kudos, Etisalat!

Hats-off to Afewgoodmen for the tip-off.

Etisalat has repackaged their popular EasyStarter product. The new package now combines a mix of various benefits, including free airtime, Homezone and Receiver Pays, among others.

Bonus-on-incoming Calls is another unique and first-of-its-kind offer in Nigeria. Customers get 1 free minute for every 3 minutes of calls they receive from other networks in Nigeria. They can use the free minutes they get to call any other network in Nigeria.

You & Me allows easy starter customers enjoy N300 “free credit” every week to call a loved one’s etisalat number anytime. All a customer has to do to enjoy this fantastic offer is to recharge with a minimum of N200 in a week and then register the Etisalat number of their ‘special person’ by dialling *233*1*etisalat number#. They will get the N300 worth of “free credit” during the week they recharged up to N200, to speak to the number they have registered. The credit can only be used to call the registered You & Me number. Validity period for the N300 credit is 7days.

Homezone allows you make calls for as low as N24/minute to all networks in the location you make most of your calls. Enjoy this benefit simply by dialing *242 # or call 242 at your preferred location. Change your homezone location by dialing *242# or calling 242 in the new preferred location. To check if you are in your homezone dial*243# and to query your homezone name *2430#. This service is open to only subscribers.

Receiver Pays is another innovation from Etisalat, Receiver Pays gives you the opportunity to have friends and family members pay for the calls you make to them. Receiver pays allows you make calls to anyone even without “credit”!

The 3rd revision of my popular ebook, Guide to Mobile Internet in Nigeria (first published in June 2009), is now available for download. This time, a CDMA network, Starcomms makes a debut in the guide, plus updates on Etisalat and other minor revisions.

The size of the ebook has also been reduced. Now, its a smaller 1.25mb in size, compared to 14.9mb for the 2nd Revision. My colleagues and I are convinced that the size of the book limited downloads somewhat.

The previous revision was downloaded 972 times. In all, my Guide to Mobile Internet in Nigeria has recorded over 3, 000 downloads since June 2009 till today, June 8, 2010.

Download your free copy

Etisalat Nigeria is currently running offers for Blackberry devices.

2 Months Free for Existing Subscribers
For existing subscribers, Etisalat offers two(2) months free subscription with the following conditions:

Just pay two months Blackberry® from etisalat subscription* upfront and get two months extra free! That’s a whopping 4 months for the price of 2!

Your etisalat Blackberry service must not be suspended for you to be eligible for this offer, meaning your service must be active before you recharge.

All you have to do is recharge your account up to the required amount (N10,000 for BIS and N12,000 for BES, BES+) and text BIS to 300.

4 Months Free for New Subscribers
For new subscribers, you need to pick up a Blackberry 8520 for N45,000 to be eligible for this. I am not quite clear about the details now, but if you are interested, do give Etisalat customer care a call.

Thanks to a heads-up by Kay123, we now have news that Etisalat has extended its mobile internet plans to regular voice SIMs. From the Etisalat website:

Get the plan that’s right for you. Use with your regular etisalat prepaid SIM card or the Easynet data-only SIM card and Modem

The fixed plans that run on data-only SIMs are still available alongside the newly introduced packages.

Discuss this topic over at the MobilityNigeria Forum topic, Etisalat extends easynet to regular sims.

19 months after being granted a Unified Access License by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and launching the 0809uchoose campaign, Etisalat Nigeria rolled out their services in 7 major cities across Nigeria and have continued to expand at a fast rate.

After careful analysis of their offers, I got myself a SIM and I’ve been hooked ever since. The reasons aren’t too farfetched.

1. At N30/minute (EasyCliq) and N24/minute (Easy Starter HomeZone), they offer the LOWEST OFF-NET TARIFFS amongst all the functional GSM providers. I basically make most of my calls (ON-NET & OFF-NET) on my Etisalat line because it’s way cheaper, with the exception of GLO 2 GLO calls, which are currently, pegged at N18/minute based on an ongoing promo.
2. SMS communication is cheaper at the rate of N5 to Etisalat Networks and N10 to other networks. Other networks charge N15 for off-net textmessages. On Etisalat, I also get one free SMS for every two that I send
3. On the EasyCliq plan, for every N500 I spend on making calls and texting each month, I’m assured of 3MB OF FREE INTERNET DATA, as well as the occasional free SMS and free talk minutes. Though 3MB looks small, it goes a long way for checking my emails and Facebook while on the road. Of course Opera Mini is needed so as not to waste the bandwidth
4. I rarely get the annoying “NUMBER NOT AVAILABLE/UNREACHABLE” prompt while making calls on Etisalat and the calls are mostly crystal clear.
5. Their Internet services though ridiculously priced and lacking 3G connection, are the most reliable in my opinion.

In the title of this entry, “Five Reasons Why I’m Better Off On The Etisalat Network For Now!”, the emphasis is on the phrase “for now“. I am probably enjoying the Etisalat network because they are still UNDER-SUBSCRIBED. Only time will tell if they can keep up the brilliant services as their active subscriber base grows.

Note: Coverage is still a bit shaky even in covered cities so I wouldn’t suggest you make Etisalat your primary telephone number.

I would be literally lost without my Etisalat line. What network’s services can’t you live without? Feel free to leave a comment below.

We have just updated our page presenting statistics about mobile networks in Nigeria. The information on that page is sourced from the NCC website.

What is significant is that Etisalat has moved several steps up into the exclusive list of top 5 mobile operators in Nigeria. The 0809 network now occupies number 5 slot with 1,835,870 active subscribers, trailing Visafone (2,533,812 active subscribers). Multilinks Telkom follows Etisalat closely with 1,820,750 active subscribers.

Thanks to a heads-up from Abubakar Mahmud, we now have news that Etisalat has dropped its tariffs on pay-as-you-go browsing from 35 kobo per kb to 15 kobo per kb. Screenshot from the Etisalat Mobile Internet page:

Click on the image to view it full size.

This mini-review was submitted as a comment yesterday by a regular here, karmawa, but I thought it merited a post of its own. – Yomi

After a month of using Etisalat Internet via their bundle package I thought would be good to share my experience with the rest of you.

Area of usage – Yola Adamawa State
Bundle used via Etisalat USB modem and EDGE
Previous connection used ZAIN (for some comparison)

Connection

I have been able to connect with mostly no problems. There was a few times where a few timeouts and the connection going from net to local occurred but nothing drastic, after my experience with Zain its something one can live with, believe me!

Speed

there were a few days when everything slowed down quite a bit BUT all and all speed has been great, browsing is smooth with pages opening up with no hitches at all. File downloads are a breeze for instance updating my computer (roughly 200MB) took about an hour, now considering that it would take 5 days(or more with all the timeouts) to update via ZAIN you can see I’m quite happy with this.

Software User Interface

Installation was hassle-free. It is easy to use and works with no problems, keeping track of usage, etc, is painless.

Customer Service

*they are trying* there have been instances like all the other companies where the reps are not very well informed, but at least :

a. you always get to talk to a customer service rep (calls are always answered, no go to the website or to a shop in this case)

b. they are polite and friendly and try their best to give you the information that’s needed.

Here’s my experience with customer service earlier today.

I started with the 500mb plan and decided that the service in general is good enough to motivate me to migrate to the 3GB plan.

I sent an email with the request for the upgrade. 30 minutes later I got a call from a representative to informed me that he would be doing the upgrade in a few minutes. He stated that as soon as it was completed he would call back to confirm that all is ok.

20 minutes later I got a call back from the same rep to notify me that the upgrade had been done and for me to check my balance. He also had the courtesy to reply by email to finalize the request.

To be honest I was VERY, VERY impressed with this.

To wrap up this very long comment (sorry Yomi!!) it has been great using Etisalat so far, I hope they continue with a complete focus on always improving.

All I know is, NOW WE’RE REALLY TALKING!! Well done Etisalat!

GSM operator, Etisalat, seems to be on a roll. This time, they have put out into the market a post-paid product, Elite World.

Elite World offers the following benefits:

• one simple tariff
• the choice of one out of four minimum monthly payments (MMP) – N2,500; N5,000; N10,000; and N20,000
• added rewards on voice and data
• blackberry services
• international roaming (180 countries; 500 operators)

Added Rewards

Subscribers on the N2,500 MMP plan get N250 voice airtime and 20mb data free.

Subscribers on the N5,000 MMP plan get N750 voice airtime and 50mb data free.

Subscribers on the N10,000 MMP plan get N2,000 voice airtime and 150mb data free.

Subscribers on the N20,000 MMP plan get N5,000 voice airtime, 300mb data and USB modem free.

Tariffs

For some reason, the customer care representative that I spoke with on phone did not have the tariffs for this package available. I was directed to go down to an Etisalat Experience Centre. If anyone has the tariffs for voice, SMS and data on Elite World, kindly post.

Subscription

To subscribe, you are required to go to an Etisalat Experience Centre with two passport photographs, your ID card, and the cash for the first month of the plan you wish to subscribe to.

GSM mobile operator, Etisalat, has launched bundle internet packages under the brand name, EasyNet.

Basically, the EasyNet service gives you a dedicated data SIM and a USB modem, to be used with one of the available bundle internet plans. At the moment, EasyNet plans include:

• 100MB for 30 days at N1,000
• 500MB for 30 days at N3,000
• 3GB for 30 days at N10,000

I spoke with an Etisalat customer care lady this evening to find out if the EasyNet packages can be activated on regular voice lines. The answer I was given was a No. According to her, EasyNet is available only on dedicated data SIMs for use with their USB modems. Bad move.

Etisalat is also running a Launch Offer. This “offers special discount on the EasyNet service from launch till December 31st, 2009. This discount offer subscribers access to more data than actually purchased”. Sounds like a good deal.

Okay, we asked for it and Etisalat has delivered. The packages look good. The sour point, in my opinion, is the restriction of the bundle plans to data SIMs only. Those Etisalat customers who want to use internet on their regular phones, smartphones and pocket PCs have no option but to continue to shell out the regular rate of 35 kobo per kb.

In true military fashion, the Federal Government of Nigeria has given a 60-day period in which NITEL, the comatose first national operator, must be sold. Sale number what is this, by the way?

What really interests us here is that three mobile giants, MTN, Glo, and Etisalat, among other companies, have expressed interest in purchasing NITEL, according to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

For obvious reasons, I am against Glo getting this pie. If Glo’s ambition is realised, we are simply back to the days of monopoly – one single National Operator. No. Never again! Nothing personal, Glo, but your application ought to be struck off immediately.

MTN looks good for this, in my opinion, and I have nothing against Etisalat picking up the theoretically juicy licence.