Well, finally, the transition is complete. Zain Nigeria is now Airtel Nigeria. This is the 6th mask that the 0802-0808 network will be putting on since 2001 when it arrived Nigeria as ECONET Wireless. New brand. New logo. New website. Same numbers. Hopefully, better services.

According to a news report by The Vanguard, the name change was announced at a colourful celebration in Abuja on Thursday.

Source

Here’s the evolution chain: ECONET Wireless Nigeria >> Vodacom Nigeria >> Vmobile Nigeria >> Celtel Nigeria >> Zain Nigeria >> Airtel Nigeria.

Welcome, Airtel!

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.

For the first time in many months, Nigeria fell off Opera Mini’s top 10 countries list, while Vietnam made its debut.

Here are other statistics from the report:

• Nokia and Sony Ericsson are by far the most popular handset brands chosen by Opera Mini users in the CIS
• Users in the top 10 countries save up to 672 million USD per month, or over 8.1 billion USD per year

Behind the Scene

Apparently, part of the phenomenal growth of mobile internet usage in Nigeria stemmed from the widespread practice of illegal free browsing, as subscribers generally by-passed network tolls (usually by tweaking certain settings in Opera Mini itself, alongsideother applications on PC).

Of recent, it has been reported that both MTN Nigeria and Zain Nigeria took steps to curb this practice, blocking off access to Opera Mini’s servers, and thus resulting in the recorded drop in usage. If the networks are able to keep hackers off their mobile internet services, we can expect to see Nigeria drop further on the Opera Mini chart.

Those rooting for illegal free browsing because of supposed high mobile internet tariffs need to explore legal options. For example, the very same Opera Mini that the hackers use to bypass network tolls deliver incredible savings on browsing because of its compression technology.

Personally, I have used Opera Mini extensively and even with my heavy usage, a 100mb bundle subscription (costing just N1, 000 per month) is more than adequate when used on Opera Mini. Even pay-as-you-go internet is made much more economical.

This is an application that already helps the subscriber cut costs by as much as 90% (that’s almost free browsing, if you really, really think of it).

Is it too much to let the network operators make that small margin just so they can keep access to the Opera Mini servers alive? In my opinion, this free browsing craze is not the product of poverty, but of gross selfishness, self-centredness and of corrupt minds.

But what do we care?

Zain Nigeria recently revamped their WAP/mobile portal, renaming it “Z-Zone”. The portal homepage is bright, catchy and well laid out. With a black background and colourful button links, Z-Zone is a looker.

The homepage sports links to Hot Picks, Religious, Ringtones, News & Sports, Games, Wallpapers & Animations, Videos, Feedback and more.

So far as I can tell, everything available on the Z-Zone portal is commercial. That means you have to pay to access them. The fees are deducted from your airtime, which is brilliant and straightforward. After selecting the specific content you want, there’s the option to accept to be billed. Once you click “I accept”, the fee is deducted from your balance and your download or item is presented.

There is nothing complicated about Z-Zone, and the purchasing mechanism is straightforward once you have chosen to part with your money.

There is however one aspect that is a bit annoying – the navigation. Here’s a scenario: if you want to read a news item, it takes 5 (that’s five) clicks one homepage to get to the page where you are presented with the info:

You are about to buy content from Zainfor the price of 20 NGN. Please click “I accept” to continue.

Depending ion what else you want, it may require more than those five steps.

Five steps is a bit too much, in my opinion. Perhaps Zain can re-work the navigation to accomodate sub-categories? For example, under News & Sports on the homepage can be an unordered list of sub-categories. That automatically reduces the steps from five to four.

If consistently implemented through the various menus, a subscriber shouldn’t have to click through more than three menus to get to most items.

Check out Z-Zone on your phone sometime at wap.ng.zain.com.

234next reports in a news item this morning that Kuwait-based telecom company Zain Group has announced its intentions to sell off its African mobile networks.

If this happens, we can expect another change of name, and another round of re-configuration for internet services (no!) on the 0802/0808 network.

0802/0808 started out in Nigeria as Econet Wireless, transitted to Vodacom for a brief stinct, then to Vmobile, on to Celtel, and now Zain. What’s next? The plot thickens, surely.