I held out for as long as possible, hoping against hope that Zain Nigeria would have a re-think about some of their services.

No; I wasn’t asking for too much. I only needed stable mobile internet services. Because this is 2009, I also wanted that internet connection to be high speed. GPRS is good. EDGE is faster. 3G is not bad. But in 2009, anything short of a 3.5G connection does not qualify as high speed.

Recently, a Zain official confirmed to me that 3G and 3.5G are available (officially) only on post-paid SIMs. He spent time trying to convince me to migrate my line to a contract package. But I know better. I’ve had my fingers burnt on contracts a couple of times. I know others who have too.

But I was willing to stay with Zain on their pre-paid platform. You see I have high-speed internet connection at the office and at home, so I could tolerate GPRS or EDGE when out and about.

Then suddenly, Zain internet went bunkers. Tolerating GPRS/EDGE was one thing. Tolerating GPRS/EDGE that was not working was… well… you get the picture.

‘Dayo and others who know me well have been wondering why I have stayed with Zain this long. They know I normally have no qualms changing my line. It baffles them. It sort of baffles me too.

I finally gave in this morning. I just could not bear it any longer. I got myself a SIM from another network. When I popped in the new SIM, 3G/3.5G internet was ready and waiting. My Xperia X1 simply connected on schedule to download my mails. What bliss!

I am sure that Zain works for some people – perhaps people who want nothing than just voice and SMS; people who are not so into mobile internet; and people who do not need a high speed connection.

Mobile internet is primary on my list. SMS follows. Voice comes last. Yes; I’m wierd. Welcome to my world.

No; I am not so naive as to think that I won’t experience any issues with the new network. In Nigeria, that is wishful thinking. But at least, whatever it is I have to tolerate, I now have high-speed internet on the go. At least when it works.

There’s a discussion thread over at Nairaland focussed on Z3, the Zain 3G service. The gist is that the Z3 service is officially restricted to post-paid (contract) plans, though it appears that some very few non-contract lines are able access it (a system glitch?).

In addition, if what the original poster says is true, Z3 coverage is wider than we had supposed, but the majority of Zain subscribers are unable to access it simply because the service is not activated on their SIMs.

I am not able to confirm this right away, but I will find hunt out the truth of this matter. I have held on to my Zain line this long in hope that 3G will show up in the picture sometime soon. If this bit of news is true, I may be replacing my SIM with one from another network.

As much as I have shied away from another line change, I am just not excited about having no 3G access for a long time to come.

Anyone here has access to a Zain official in the know?

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Update: 20th August 2009
Dayo and I were at a Zain shop to ask about 3G service. We were able to confirm that Zain Nigeria’s official policy is that 3G service is available only on postpaid lines and data-only lines.

While the official I spoke with did his best to convince me to migrate to a contract package, I simply won’t. A GSM contract is always a bad idea.

I did purchase a data-only SIM to test out the official’s claim that Zain 3G is present in my area. Guess – it isn’t.

None of the above surprised Dayo, the eternal sceptic. Me? I really don’t care anymore.

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I was at a Zain shop this morning on some business. During the course of my stay there, I got to know from a representative that official provisioning/activation for Zain full internet (not WAP) is available for a one-time setup fee of N1, 000 only.

If you are a Zain subscriber and have been having issues with getting full internet access on your line, walk into a Zain shop with N1, 000 to request for activation.

The PR guys at GloMobile consistently tout their network as Nigeria’s most advanced GSM network. In addition, they tell us that Glo is also building Africa’s most advanced netwwork.

But how advanced (read: intelligent) can this network be, given the following:

1. Newly activated SIMs are not automatically provisioned for mobile data. “Less advanced” networks like MTN and Etisalat do this.
2. Even OTA (SMS) activation for data usually does not work. In the last one year, I have had reason to attempt to activate GloMoibile GPRS/3G on a number of SIMs by sending “Activate” to 444. All I get is a return SMS that my activation request will be processsed within 48 hours. In all cases, it never happened. In one case, 4, 320 hours later, that line has still not been provisioned
3. Going to a Gloworld outlet for activation often does not work either. There’s a particular SIM with me now, OTA provisioning has been attempted about 100 times without any results, and the SIM has been to Gloworld Opebi thrice in the last 6 months. Still no show.
4. The Glomobile billing system (especially for contract data subscribers) has a mind of its own and regularly bills outrageously (or some people at Glo are intentionally scamming subscribers

Personally, I am tired of this mess. If you need easy GSM mobile data activation/provisioning, your best bet are MTN and Etisalat. No; Zain is not much better than Glo in this regard. You will only end up sending lots of activation codes and visiting Zain centres – and if you are lucky, your line gets to be activated.

Yes; it is more a game of chance.

The flip-side is that because of the diffuculties of getting activated, there are relatively and significantly fewer users on both Glo and Zain data services, making both of them relatively stable. At least, generally, they are more stable than MTN data. Etisalat’s high mobile data tariff seems to help maintain stability on their network too.

You see, you cannot eat your cake and have it.

Thinking of it, it is either the Glo network is not so intelligent. Or it is that the network is so intelligent – infact, far more intelligent than the people who operate it (apologies to all my guys at Glo) – that the personnel have not gotten the hang of how to put it to work as intended.

What do you you think?

I have been working behind the scenes on a concise guide to mobile internet in Nigeria. Nigeria is one of the fastest growing mobile voice and internet countries in the world. This free ebook provides concise but useful information about the available GSM-based mobile internet services in the country.

• 2nd Revision: Mar. 2010
• 1st Revision: Feb. 2010

A revised version is now available for download

Months ago, Zain announced that its 3G service was live, and some of us were quite expectant.

However, the days, weeks, and months have flown by and Zain 3G is yet to be experienced by the majority of her subscribers who live and work in the very areas that Zain claims 3G coverage.

From Victoria Island to Yaba to Ogba, subscribers keep staring at their phone displays in the hope of seeing the 3G notification icon pop up, but all to no avail.

Dayo and I drove all the way to VI and back yesterday, and not once did we get a Zain 3G signal.

Not once have I seen the 3G icon on any of the 3G phones that I have installed a Zain SIM on. As a matter of fact, even EDGE coverage on the Zain network is scanty – not as bad as 3G, but certainly not available widespread either. At the eendd of the day, the average subscriber in Lagos is left with nothing but GPRS.

Exactly where does Zain have active 3G coverage? Have you used Zain 3G or do you know someone who has?

In the first part of my review of the LG KS360, I examined the form factor and multimedia. In this second part, I am examining the internet capabilities, email, and other features.

Internet

The KS360′s built-in browser is by a company named – guess – Teleca. Ever heard of them? Didn’t think so. But they’ve been at the mobile browser thing since 1999, with the world’s first WAP 1.1 browser, though its development process started in 1997. Surprised? There’s more.

Teleca’s global market share was 14% as of 2007, and held 3rd place in mobile browser field. More than 600 million of mobile phones are equipped with Teleca products, and many of the excellent browsers built-into Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson phones are the handwork of Teleca.

Teleca has also produced a browser that’s a worthy competitor to all of Opera Mini and Mobile, Nokia Webkit and the iPhone’s Safari. Don’t take my word for it; see Dennis Bournique’s review of Teleca’s New Browser – Wow!

I know what you are thinking. No; I have not been paid to market Teleca. Or LG

Anyway, Teleca recently rebranded to Obigo.

Okay, I’m done with history class. Does the the Teleca/Obigo browser on the KS360 pass the test? It does a good job but it is just not the most capable of browsers.

Browsing dedicated mobile sites on the KS360 poses no problem, and browsing not-so-heavy HTML pages is not either. However, the browser runs into a wall when you attempt to load a very large page and displays an “out of memory” error.

I mean, this means I cannot do any serious work on that browser. I cannot log into Alireta‘s web-based client admin area. I cannot do any cpanel operations, et al. Add this to the fact that the browser is also a wee bit slow in loading pages.

The KS360 impresses me in many areas, but this limitations of the browser is a deal-breaker for me. It would serve a casual user of the mobile web quite aptly though, so its up to you to decide whether it will do.

However, if a website has been deliberately designed to be mobile-friendly, the Teleca/Obigo browser in the KS360 handles it beautifully well.

Email client

POP3 and IMAP4 email clients are supported. Attachments to email can be fully downloaded. The KS360 also has an auto message retriever that searches for new mails at set intervals and announces new mails with a tone/note.

There is an issue I have with the mail client. For some reason I am still not able to deduce, the mail client does not show me an up-to-date list of the most recent mails on my server. The list it presents always has the most recent week’s mails missing.

This is a deal-breaker for me. My most recent mails are important to me. Whether this is a server issue or a device isssue is not clear, though I doubt the former. All other email clients I have used work flawlessly on this score.

Photo Gallery

LG has provided a very sleek image gallery. The user can choose between 4 viewing styles, including thumbnail view, two 3D view options, and a list view. The 3D view options are stunning, though things can get sluggish a bit when viewing images stored on a a heavilly loaded microSD card. I had a 2G card in the phone.

There’s also a slideshow view option.

Organizer and Office features

Surprise; surprise! The KS360 comes with office document viewer, giving the user the ability to view MS Office documents. For a phone in this price range, that’s a deal.

Battery Life

The battery just lasts and lasts. Quite impressive.

Java

Other features:

- Voice Recorder
- FM radio
- Calendar
- memo
- Games
- Calculator

Conclusion

The KS360 is a noble effort from LG. The feature set is extensive, and the user interface nice and simple. But if you make extensive use of the internet and email, this may not be what the doctor ordered.

But its specifications, general performance and price makes this phone a recommended one for anyone on a budget and looking for an all-round device.

Most current mid-tier and all current high-end mobile phones have built-in email clients in their Messaging menu. This means that you can recieve, manage and respond to your emails on your phone. Benefits include having access to your mail when away from your desktop or notebook. You can always fire a quick and short response, and then follow it up with a detailed response later.

Setting Up

1. The email account you want to setup on your phone must be either POP3 or IMAP (the latter is better). This includes Gmail, corporate email accounts, and premium (not free) Yahoo email accounts.

2. You need to have a full internet serviccee on your line via GPRS, EDGE, 3G or HSDPA. WAP internet won’t do. Luckilly, all the 4 GSM networks now offer full internet to pay-as-you-go subscribers.

3. You need to know your mail servers, both incoming and outgoing. These are usually in the format: mail.domain.com, imap.domain.com, smtp.domain.com. There must be two of them, though in some cases the two may be the same.

4. Your email username (usually the full email address) and its password

If you have all the above, simply go into your Messaging settings menu and input them in their respective fields. During setup, choose IMAp as mail service type. If your account does not run IMAP, then opt for POP3. Ask your webmaster or company technical support members for help if necesarry.

Some mail clients offer the option to set automatic retrieval, such that at the set times or intervals, the phone connects to your mail server to download new mails.

Let me know how it goes setting up your email account on your phone. I’ll be here to guide you through the tough spots if you run into trouble.

I received a request from an iPhone owner who wants to be able to use his PC internet subscription on his phone. In this article, I present a tutorial on how to setup a wireless hotspot on your notebook and browse with your Wi-fi enabled phone through that wireless connection.

The idea is that you can bypass your GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSPDA network and save some cash (please be sure to send a donation!).

On to the business at hand…

Stage One: Setup your WLAN Network

1. On your notebook, go to Control panel
2. Click to open “Network Connections”
3. Right click on “Wireless Connection” and click on “Properties”
4. Click on the “Wireless Networks” tab and select the check-box tagged “Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings”
5. Under “Prefered networks” click “Add”
6. In the text box labelled “Network name”, type in a name for your network
7. Under “Network Authentication”, select “Open” or “Shared” (shared is more secure)
8. Under Data encryption select “WEP” and type in your password in “Network Key” field. Use a 5-character password. Click “OK”
9. In the list of preferred networks, you should now see your new wireless network.
10. Select/highlight your network, then click on the “Advanced” button. Select “Computer-to-computer (ad hoc) networks only” and hit the “Close” button.
11. Click “OK” to close the box

Stage Two: Share Your Internet Subscription Through the New Network

In all probability, you have a subscription from Starcomms, DirectOnPC or iWireless, or some other ISP

1. In Control Panel, click to open “Network Connections”
2. Look for your ISP connection, right click it and select “Properties”
3. Go to the “Advanced” tab and under “Internet Connection Sharing” check the box which says “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection”
4. Right below it is a selection box. Choose “Wireless Network Connection”
5. Click “OK”. That’s it. Your very own WLAn hotspot is ready!

The Rest…

Enable WLAN on your notebook (hardware button or desktop icon). Then set your phone (in this case my Nokia E90) to search for available WLAN networks. Your new network should be discovered and displayed. Works a treat here, and I’m browsing on my commie at breakneck speeds (I have a HSDPA link on my notebook).

When asked for your WEP key, enter your 5-character password, and depending on the device complete the process and start browsing!

Feel free to ask your questions using the comment box below. Just be sure to give as much details as possible.

Until now, I had never purchased nor used an LG device. I got this device out of a spirit of adventure. The QWERTY keyboard onboard such a mid-tier device was an object of fascination for me.

The KS360 has ended up a bundle of surprises, and I bet that you are itching to find out for yourself. So, let’s cut to the chase…

Quick Stats:
1. GPRS/EDGE
2. 240 x 320 pixel screen + touch dialling
3. 2 megapixel camera (no flash; no autofocus)
4. Side Slider form factor
5. Bluetooth, USB
6. WAP 2.0/XHTML browser
7. Email client
8. 15mb shared memory + MicroSD slot
9. Slide-out QWERTY keyboard

Form factor, Display, and Keypad

The KS360 looks like the regular slider phone – except that the slider opens sideways this time to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. In size, its also quite compact.

The KS360 spots a huge 2.4-inch display that takes up most of the front. Below the display are several buttons, including a clusted navigational set, two soft key buttons, hang up and dial buttons, a “C” button that takes you a step back in whatever menu you are in. The last button is that which activates the touchscreen dialer.

This touchscreen dialer gives you numeric as well as alphabet keys for either typing in a number or typing out a name from the contacts application respectively. The implementation of this touchscreen dialer is beautiful, and it works well. Note though that the touchscreen functionality is avaoilable only in the standby mode with the slider closed. How did LG pull that?

The LG KS360 has well thought-out ergonomics. With slider closed, it fees good in the hand, and is very comfortable even with the QWERTY keyboard slid out.

The display is quite brilliant, and bright. It is one of the better displays in this price bracket. You are also able to adjust the brightness and time-out.

Slide out the QWERTY keyboard, and the display rotates to landscape mode. In this mode, you can hammer out your email, and text messages, and also enter text into webpages.

The QWERTY keys are small but slightly domed for easier usability. The keyboard works well, but don’t expect the most spectacular performance for a phone this size. The smaller a phone is, usually the more of comfort and usability is given up with text entry.

The spring-loaded keyboard slides in and out smoothly, and feels very well built. Actually, the whole device has a feel of sturdiness and quality, though it is made of plastic.

Multimedia

The KS360 has a fixed focus 2MPX camera that delivers good shots. No; not great or spectacular shots. But what do you expect from a 2MPX camera without flash, and without autofocus?

Close-up shots in good lighting come out fine. Anything beyond that is more of a hit-and-miss affair.

Video playback is included in the KS360. Anything above 20 frames per second, though, and playback gets jerky and unstable. I converted a number of DVD movies to MP4 at 15 fps, and they played smoothly. Of course, 15fps meant that the video quality was greatly tampered with.

The KS360 has a built-in MP3 player too. It is quite basic, and produces fairly good sound in terms of quality and loudness. If you are a music buff who is used to iPod-like quality music, however, stay away.

Part two coming up shortly. I am deliberately breaking this review into paarts so as to keep page size down for those browsing on mobile.

Here’s a short video clip of the LG KS360 QWERTY keyboard device. My full review still on the way!

LG KS360 Video (6.2mb)

Every year, to mark my birthday, I treat myself to a new mobile phone. Usually, it is a smartphone. This year, however, I have departed slightly from the regular pattern and gotten myself a mid-tier non-smartphone.

While traditionally a Nokia and Sony Ericsson fan, I have been getting quite adventurous for some time now, straying into the territory of other manufacturers, including Palm and Samsung. Well, the adventurous streak in me is apparently still at work.

I got myself an LG this time. My very first LG. Yes; life’s good!

The LG KS360

The KS360 is an interesting device from LG that sports a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a stunning 240 x 320 pixel, 2.4 inch, display with touch screen dialling functionality, GPRS and EDGE, Bluetooth, 2 MPX camera, FM radio, threaded SMS view, and microSD slot, among others. It is primarilly targeted at heavy messaging people.

KS360 beside the E90

The size difference is amazing! The KS360 is the size of a regular phone and weighs only 108g.

The KS360 with Keyboard Slid Out

I’ll be doing a full review soon, so watch this space!