One of the dilemma of changing ISPs here is that you are not so sure if the new guys you are considering cover your present location, and if service there is reliable.

When I first wrote my article, Mobile Data: Bridging The Internet Divide In Africa, back in 2005 (also re-published here on Mobility in 2008), one of the factors that I considered in making some of the forecasts that I did is the flexibility attached to GSM-based mobile services.

Permit me to explain how that plays out in this scenario.

You want to subscribe to a new service that is CDMA-based. There is no way to determine availability and/or reliability in your area. For the most part, the ISP themselves do not have accurate information on this either.

If you do not have a neighbour who uses that service in the same vicinity, you are effectively at the mercy of fate.

If you were considering a GSM-based service, however, you could simply purchase a SIM for N150, register it, put it in any internet-enabled phone lying around, load just N1,000 and activate a 100MB data plan and use that to test the service.

If you are not satisfied, simply repeat the process with another service provider. If/when satisfied, you can then splurge out more cash on a modem or mifi device for PC use. Of course, if your phone has a built-in modem or Wi-Fi hotspot, you can retain the SIM in your phone.

This sort of flexibility, alongside other factors, make GSM-based internet connectivity very appealing for a wide range of users.

But there are new kids on the block, the most popular of which is WhatsApp. Besides that, there are also Kik, Ping, Blackberry Messenger, ChatOn, iMessenger, and FaceBook Chat.

Regardless of how popular IM services have been, however, there is one nagging problem – the non-universal nature of the services.

Both WhatsApp and Kik are available for all major smartphone platforms – Android, Symbian, iOS, Blackberry. Viber is available only for Android and iOS. Whatever the reach of each service, the user has to know about them first and then go install them to their phones.

For example, If I have WhatsApp installed and running on my phone, some of my contacts may not have it on theirs. Some of them may be using Kik or BBM or some other service. Problem.

WhatsApp has been the most popular. For the purpose of this discussion, let us assume that everyone we know is using this service. WhatsApp is a paid service and after a trial free period, a subscription is required. Not everyone will pay for the service. As such, I will end up losing some contacts.

SMS – From Messaging To Instant Messaging

Short Message Service (SMS) has been around for ages. It was not designed as an IM service, but shall we consider the possibility of its evolution into one?

SMS is ubiquitous. SMS is built into the GSM technology of networks. Its capability is built into every mobile in production. These two points mean that the problem of universality is solved (or removed from the way). In addition, it is always-on as long as your phone is switched on and within coverage area. No configuration needed to get it working.

Would it be too difficult to evolve SMS into an IM service? I don’t think so – and I think that this is eventually what will happen.

Already, the modern conversation-style user interface of SMS in modern smartphones has taken it one step closer to the IM goal.

How fast will this transition or evolution happen? I don’t know. But I am sticking my neck out that it will eventually. SMS will evolve into the mother of all mobile IM services.

Comments welcome!

We are witnesses to the gradual transition from SIM cards to microSIM cards. Possibly, SIM cards will still be further shrunk down. However, beyond size, I envisage that the SIM of the future will be significantly different in how it works too.

As at today, each SIM is locked to a specific mobile network. In mobile number portability, we observe that it is possible for a SIM that is programmed to a specific network to be migrated to another network. Pushing this idea further along its logical path, we can envisage something of the SIM of the future.

Imagine for a moment SIM cards that are non-operator specific, but that scan for available networks from which you can pick a network of your choice and then load airtime to use that network – very much the way Wifi works now. Yet; your SIM number does not change.

Since the subscriber’s unique identifier does not change, I would imagine that the issues of identity and security are pretty much taken care of.

Imagine the competition to provide better QoS, as on the whim of the moment, a subscriber can switch from network A to B and lose nothing.

Imagine the convenience of having just one SIM and never being stranded – if your everyday network does not cover an area you are travelling to, simply lock on to an alternative network and you are good to go.

I call this the smartSIM. Imagine the possibilities.

We all know the saying, “The customer is always right”. However, although we’ve had GSM for ten years now, there are still issues that leave one wondering if subscribers are at the heart of providers’ decision making.

The GSM market in Nigeria is very lucrative for service providers considering that none of them have folded up and even more licenses are being sought after. Service providers need the subscribers to stay in business. Treat subscribers right or risk low patronage and being thrown out of business; right?

Considering the fact that mobile providers and mobile subscribers need one another to survive, there should be mutual respect and trust.

Billing
In 2001, when GSM arrived, a line was sold for as high as N20,000. Call tariffs were as high as N50 per minute, and as low as N25 per minute for on-net calls. Back then, we didn’t even have per second billing.

Although today things are a lot different with lines going for next to zero naira, per second billing now available, and much lower call rates, we still see some tariff plans that leave one wondering if the customers are thought of at all.

Service providers run adverts, telling customers of bargain rates. How often do they tell us that there are hidden agenda to these packages, capable of robbing us of our money?

Why would I activate a new tariff plan, and be robbed of my benefits from the previous package without a warning?

Why should I be slammed with a caller tune I didn’t ask for and be billed continuously for it?

Quality of Service
Not much has changed from what we started with in terms of network delivery – network congestion is still the order of the day.

Error messages which do not really tell us the situation of things are still a part of our daily calls. Examples:

- Sorry your call cannot be completed at the moment.

- Sorry your account is too low, please load an all in one card (even when you have surplus airtime)

- The number you are calling is not available at the moment (even if you are staring at the phone with full network signal)

- The number you are calling is incorrect (even though its a number you’ve always dialed)

- The number does not exist on the GLO network (I understand an MTN number not being on the GLO network, but when the number dialed is a registered GLO line?)

- This number does not have the facilities to receive calls.

Do these error messages tell us the truth, or is it just a case of their systems being overcrowded with call requests?

Customer Support
Ten years on, and you still can’t call customer care of network providers and receive prompt response. The calls either do not go through or you are kept on hold for a while, and at times, even after being put on hold, you can’t be attended to.

Operators’ service and quality delivery is inconsistent. In the books of these operators, it seems that living in a small metropolitan city is a curse. Should it be so? Considering that we all get charged the same amount for calls made and data used.

People visit customer care centres for days without getting solutions to their problems. Its either the server is down, or something else.

In July, the Lagos State House of Assembly urged the Federal Government to intensify its statutory monitoring of the activities of telecommunications companies in the country. The house specifically mentioned “the poor services being rendered by these telecommunications outfits in Nigeria”.

We shall hope that something good comes out of this. In the meantime, what have beeng your experiences – sweet and/or bitter in the hands of our GSM network providers?

From the 82 unique visitors and 1,127 page views registered in that month, MobilityNigeria has grown in leaps and bounds to register 9,610 unique visitors and 16,874 page views in December 2009.

In addition, WebTrends Nigeria, a site that monitors and ranks Nigerian websites currently ranks Mobility Nigeria as number 31 in the country.

Other statistics of this website are available on our Contact page.

To be honest, the traffic between June and December 2008 was not quite encouraging, but we remember that Yomi and Dayo just kept going.

The entire team at the office sincerely thank our regulars here for helping to make this site the vibrant place that it has become. Can we also ask for your suggestions on how to make Mobility Nigeria a better resource for you? Please use the comments box to submit your suggestions.

Powered by CDMA?

Incidentally, while the majority of articles on this site have been focused on the GSM side of mobile technology in Nigeria, it is interesting to note that the very first article refered to earlier was Yomi’s escapade with browsing on a CDMA smartphone, the Treo P700 on the Reltel (now ZOOMmobile) network.

We are agreed that there is a need to tip the scales back a bit and put up more information about CDMA-based mobile technology. Expect to see more news, features and reviews from that side of the divide from now. And no; we will not be neglecting GSM in any way at all.

Advertisers, Sponsors, Phone & Manufacturers & Retailers

It takes a lot to keep a website like this going. We have to purchase or trade-in phones (whether we really need them or not) in order to have reviews. We spend huge amounts on purchasing mobile internet access and airtime from time to time in order to stay current with what is happening on various networks. Then, of course, there are web services expenses to take care of.

This is an invitation to advertisers. MobilityNigeria will give your business websites good exposure. You can even decide to sponsor the site. In this case, only your ads will feature on the site and the entire site branded completely to your corporate colours.

We invite phone manufacturers (Samsung, Nokia, and LG – you guys have a presence here in Nigeria) and retailers (even networks too) to step up and provide loan units for reviews. Two or three weeks and we’ll have the loan units returned to you in tip-top shape. Our reviews are good publicity for your products, services and/or shops.

Go ahead, you know we make business sense: email us!

The NCC also says that the operators have been directed to ensure that all currently active SIMs on their respective networks be registered. New SIMs will require registration before activation. Documents like I.D. cards and passport photographs will be required for subscriber registration.

Before the advent of GSM technology in Nigeria, all existing telecoms companies required subscriber registration. Since then, things have changed quite a bit, such that even lines on CDMA networks can now be purchased off the street by anyone without any identification whatsoever.

A serious result of this is that criminal elements find it easy to use mobile communications without a trace. Subscriber registration will certainly go a long way in curbing this.

Of course, subscriber registration and the barring of sale of SIMs on the streets also means that the networks will experience a slower rate of subscriber increase, but we are guessing here that this slower expansion will translate to better quality of service for existing subscribers.

The last few years have witnessed the mobile landscape being littered with promo after promo and huge traffic spikes during such promos. Hopefully, the mobile lottery jamboree will abate (if only a little) as well with this new policy from the NCC.

In all, Mobility Nigeria welcomes the new move to register mobile subscribers.

Palm pulled a miracle with WebOS and the Pre, but where they blew it was releasing a CDMA version first. In effect, they fixed their attention on one tiny chunk of the mobile market – the very small US market.

Palm is the only manufacturer of WebOS phones. Palm has only two such phones in the market. Those two phones are primarilly CDMA devices. Those two phones are available on a single US operator. Those two phones have a limited release on overseas carriers. Sounds like a not-so-winning formula, especially with the limitations that taking the CDMA route imposes.

A GSM version released first and followed later by a CDMA version, in my opinion, would have done much better. Think of the huge and vibrant Nigerian market. Think of South Africa, Europe and Asia – all drooling for WebOS and the Pre.

Availability to a wider market will also create a demand for more applications. Why would any developers want to invest so much in creating apps for a device or platform that has such limited availability and circulation? It is no wonder that the WebOS application catalogue is still very lean.

While Apple took a similar route with the iPhone, pushing a GSM device gave it an edge. before we knew it, iPhones were all over the place (officially or unofficially). And believe me when I say that the unofficial market is a strong one. Of course, because of network locks, the iPhone is still a bit limited. Now consider that the Pre has been largely CDMA (bad enough) and locked to a network too (double bad), and you get the picture, surely.

Palm relegated the major mobile markets to second class status. Absurd. In my opinion, Palm does not seem set to hit it big – unless they execute another u-turn. Want a wider mobile reach? Push GSM. Africa, Europe, and Asia are where mobile phones are selling like hot cake – and on these continents, GSM rules.

Related Item: Can Palm and WebOS make it through 2010?

From the news report on 234Next’s website:

A statement from NCC on Sunday in Abuja said this was sequel to the launch of the national anti-mobile phone theft initiative by the commission in partnership with a private firm.

However, to benefit from the service, subscribers must first register their phones with their service providers and keep a record of their International Mobile Equipment
Identity (IMEI).

The Information and Communications Minister Dora Akunyili had at a recent public forum declared that about 2 million phones were reported stolen in the country daily.

“With the commencement of this initiative, any reported stolen phone would be barred from any of the mobile networks in the country, thereby making that handset useless within Nigeria.

“The GSM and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile operators have already signed to move their subscribers into the system with Zain Mobile already connected to the Netvisa (the private firm) anti-phone theft system,” the statement said.

“The menace of mobile phone theft has become a serious problem in the country and has not only inconvenienced many people but also endangered lives and businesses,” it added.

Full news item: NCC says it has technology to block stolen phones

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?

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.