How do I put this?

I do not have statistics for the rest of the world, but I do know that in my experience here in Nigeria, using GPRS/EDGE for almost anything is a painful experience.

In my opinion, the least internet capability of any device that you want to use for web browsing, social networking and/or instant messaging should be 3G. Add 3.5G/HSDPA and that’s even better.

But my experience is just that. Can everyone share their experiences and point out the following:

Have you used GPRS/EDGE exclusively on any device?

What device was that?

Where? Your location.

How stable was it?

How usable in terms of speed?

Would you recommend a GPRS/EDGE only device to someone looking to get online via mobile?

Any other info welcome. The more the details you provide, the better. Thanks all!

I just got a tip-off from Shayman about new mobile internet bundles from MTN Nigeria. The new monthly plans are:

• 250MB @ N1,300, text 109 to 131
• 500MB @ N2,000, text 110 to 131
• 1GB @ N3,500, text 111 to 131

This information has not been verified by us, but I think I can stick my neck out considering the source.

GSM operator, GloMobile has upgraded their prepaid bundle mobile internet packages, giving subscribers more value for their money.

Click on the image for a larger screenshot.

The Always MAX package now offer a 5GB data cap instead of the 3GB it had before.

Always MIN now offers 1.5GB as against the old cap of 1GB.

Always Day now offers 150MB as against the older figures of 100MB and 50MB.

Lastly, G 300 now offers 4GB data in place of the old cap of 3GB.

Thanks to Timmy lawal for the tip-off.

GloMobile has just stepped up the stakes in the mobile internet service landscape of Nigeria. It seems that Nigerians are beginning to enjoy some of the benefits of Globacom’s submarine cable. The current bundle plans from Glo are without doubt the most competitive in the market.

A huge thumbs-up to Glo.

PS: Is it only at our end that MTN GPRS/EDGE/3G/3.5G went AWOL today? We haven’t been able to get a single data connection on the MTN network since mid-day till now. On a day that Glo is glowing so bright (pun intended), the MTN data blackout at our end looks really black.

A revised edition of the free ebook, Guide to Mobile Internet in Nigeria (first published in June 2009), is now available for download, as lots of information have changed since its initial publication.

A revised version is now available for download

A staff member of ours was at Ikeja in Lagos to carry out some business. Because of a new development on ground, he suddenly needed to check up some facts online.

Unfortunately for him, there was no cyber cafe in the vicinity. Well, he had on him a lower mid-range GPRS-enabled feature phone with a regular phone keypad. Thinking it would be a snap to get the required information on his handset, our man launched the browser and slowly typed out a search engine address. It took another few painful minutes for the phone’s low-end browser and his network’s GPRS connection to load the desired page.

Then he typed out his search keywords and hit the “Search” button. Five minutes later, he was still staring at the same page. Six minutes. Seven minutes. Ten minutes. Nada.

Well, he never did get the information he needed.

This incidence reminded us that there is not one factor responsible for a pleasant mobile web experience.

Network Data Capabilities
There is no doubt that if the phone in question had been 3G or HSDPA enabled, the search would have been smoother. The extra speeds available via 3G services would have made some difference, surely.

Browser Capabilities
Another factor is browser capability. Had the browser been a more decent application, surely we can expect better performance.

Text Input
Typing out fairly long strings of text with a regular mobile phone keypad can be painful and frustrating. SMS shorthand won’t help here because your search keywords have to be accurate. A hardware QWERTY keyboard, handwriting recognition or virtual QWERTY keyboard on a touchscreen certainly will help here.

Phone Processing Power
We all know that phones with powerful processors make everything – including loading of webpages – speedier. As such, phones with lower processing power may just lack that extra burst of energy that you may need for those quick searches and forays on the web when you are out and about.

This combination of factors, we believe, are the most vital in getting a good mobile web experience. While we are not expecting that people will need to use these features on their mobiles everyday, perhaps it is not such a bad idea that they think of the odd times that these functionalities may come in essential when thinking of their next mobile phone.

The user interface is another factor that deserves a mention, but that is a discussion for another day.

If you use the internet as a source of information, think about these things:

• Network Data Capabilities
• Browser Capabilities
• Text Imput Mechanism
• Phone Processing Power

Did we leave out anything?

We all here at the office have all but given up on Zain mobile internet. We are not particularly excited about Zain’s policy of limiting 3G access to postpaid subscribers only.

We know that many mobile internet users feel the same way too. Anyway, we haven’t touched Zain mobile internet in months, but that shouldn’t stop us from revisiting this subject, and ask current Zain mobile internet users whether or not Zain has reviewed that policy.

We know that Zain has at least one pocket-friendly package that has helped them keep some customers on their mobile internet plans inspite of their restricted 3G policy. But some of us are suckers for speed. Our jobs demand some minimum level of speed. And there was no way on earth that we were going to sign a contract just for that when alternatives were available. So, we dumped Zain mobile internet months ago. But that’s us.

One of the attractions of Zain’s pocket-friendly plan (we are thinking Zain Lite now, which costs N1,000 monthly) is that it is just convenient if all you need is something to use for email and light browsing on your phone. At the moment, only one other operator, Etisalat, offers a matching plan.

The official Zain Mobile Internet page gives the general impression that the restriction on 3G does not exist.

If you are on Zain prepaid, do you have access to 3G yet or are you still restricted to GPRS and EDGE? You tell us.

No; we are not being sensational. We have actually held back from writing about this, but for several weeks now, we have been getting better speeds over Glo’s GPRS/EDGE network than MTN’s 3.5G connection delivers – on the average.

Yes; there are times that the MTN 3.5G network wakes up and delivers, but it has been the exception for weeks. Meanwhile Glo GPRS/EDGE delivers between 20 kbps and 60 kbps, in comparison with the sub 10 kbps speeds we more often get on MTN 3.5G at our end here.

Sad; isn’t it? Isn’t it absurd that a network would spend billions of naira to invest in 3.5G infrastructure without developing the backend capacity to deliver 3.5G speeds?

It is obvious that the bandwidth at the disposal of MTN is not up to scratch to meet the demands of subscribers on the network. We are told by an informed source that the Glo-1 submarine cable went live a few weeks back. Perhaps that accounts for the good experience on the Glo network at the moment.

Any subscribers to Glo 3.5G out there who can comment on the kind of speeds they are getting on Glo 3.5G?

LTE is short for Long Term Evolution. It is regarded by some as a replacement for current 3G-based networks e.g. WCDMA/UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA. However, LTE is more of an upgrade or enhancement of 3G technology the same way that EDGE is an enhancement of 2G technology.

As such, it is not exactly a replacement, and while many refer to it as 4G technology, it is more accurately 3.xxG technology.

With LTE, we are looking at theoretical speeds in the range of 100mbps. Current HSDPA networks offer 7.2mbps maximum speed in theory. LTE is simply a huge leap in broadband speeds.

While there are currently no LTE-enabled phones on the market, a number of networks are firmly committed to deploying LTE. Already, network operators in Sweden and Norway are deploying the first LTE networks. The UK and Finland also have LTE networks under construction, so it looks like the stage is set for a shift.

Question: when do we expect the first LTE network in Nigeria? While this may sound like a far-fetched question, please bear in mind that there are several developed countries that do not have 3G networks that are as robust as some of those that we have on ground in the country right now.

So, who is going to bell the cat here in Nigeria? And when?

If you want to subscribe to GloMobile’s prepaid internet bundle plans, you need to be well armed so as to have a pleasant experience with the service. Here are a few vital tips. Miss these and you will have issues.

1. Subscribe to the plan of your choice by sending the required SMS
To subscribe to a bundle plan, text “activate” to 127, and follow all instructions till you are successfully subscribed to the plan of your choice. By subscribing, your line should also be automatically provisioned for GPRS/EDGE/3G/3.5G.

Of course, make sure you have more than the required airtime already loaded on your line.

2. It works on both modem and phone
Regardless of what you are told, the service works on both modems and phones. It will work on your phone. But don’t bother arguing with anyone. Just smile and create a connection setting with the following parametres:

APN: gloflat
Username: flat
Password: flat

No proxies or ports required.

The above settings are what you need to use after activating the bundle plan of your choice. If you use any other APN e.g. Glodirect, you will still be billed 15 kobo per kb from your regular airtime balance.

3. Ensure that you have at least 1 kobo left on your line
The Glo system will keep you off GPRS/EDGE/3G/3.5G if you do not have any airtime left on your line after activation of the plan of your choice. If your balance reads zero after activation, you will not be able to browse.

4. You can also deploy the service using your phone as a modem with your PC
Simply enter the configuration settings published above in your phone’s PC Suite and connect. No proxies. No ports. No tweaks.

Related Articles:

1. Glo Introduces Pre-Paid 3G Packages
2. If it works on modem, it works on phones; stupid!

It all started sometime a few weeks ago…

The first issue was that on making a connection to the MTN internet service, it would often take as long as 3-5 minutes before the connection allowed you to browse. Pages simply would not load during this mandatory pause.

That was sorted out after about three weeks of this nagging issue.

Then about two weeks ago, many MTN mobile internet subscribers simply found out that they couldn’t browse at all. Again, this was solved after a number of days.

Almost immediately on the heels of that, I noticed that several mobile applications could no longer connect to the internet, including Gmail mobile, Nokia Ovi Store, and Windows Live. Others are reporting the same with Opera Mini. Perhaps the Opera Mini issue is not a deliberate blockage by MTN but a fallout of a bigger problem? Or perhaps this bigger problem is part of the result of MTN trying to block off illegal free browsing. Who knows?

But this is all becoming unbearable.

Then, it became next-to-impossible to load any secure site on my mobile browser via MTN.

To cap it all, from last Friday, some websites just do not load on MTN’s internet connection any longer – whether directly on mobile or via PC. Those sites are not experiencing server downtime, because they load on some other ISP connections.

These last three problems have remained unsolved till now. Does anyone know what is really going on with MTN mobile internet?

I am doing this post from Accra, the capital city of Ghana. One of the uncomfortable things about travelling out of one’s native country is the prospect of being unreachable by your loved ones while on the move.

This used to be the case. Now, with voice and data roaming on mobile networks, it is fast becoming a thing of the past.

When my family and I left Nigeria on friday, thanks to seamless roaming on both MTN and Zain networks, we have stayed in touch on our regular GSM lines where each of those networks have coverage. For MTN, we had a signal most of the time and encountered black spots every now and then. This was because MTN has networks active in Benin, and Ghana.

On MTN, I received calls and SMS for free, and made calls at the same rate as subscribers on the host network pay. Unfortunately, data roaming did not work, so I was offline some time after we entered Benin till our arrival and settling down at Accra.

Zain data roaming worked once we got to Ghana, as there were no Zain networks in benin and Togo. My wife received calls for free as well and made calls to loved ones back home. As for data roaming on Zain, while there is GPRS/EDGE/3G/3.5G coverage, her Zain Nigeria line won’t even indicate the presence of that.

PS: The Zain Nigeria website says that data roaming is available in Ghana on “Tigo (Millicom)”. Why not on Zain Ghana?

I purchased a Zain Ghana SIM for mobile internet use. It came pre-activated for internet. All I had to do was load airtime, enter the settings manually, subscribe to a plan, and I was good to go. EDGE coverage is strong at our location, and I am posting this on Zain Ghana internet.

Our holiday spot, Atlantic Resort, has a Wi-fi hotspot. I will be subscribing as soon as I can get my lazy butts off the bed and out of the chalet.

This is Yomi Adegboye reporting live from Ghana for MobilityNigeria.com.

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.