Category: Infotech

GLOBACOM has introduced a free repair services for smartphone users, irrespective of their network. The firm said it was redefirming custoner service by its decision.The damaged smartphones can be repaired free at the various Gloworld shops in the country.

The first phase of the scheme known as Phone Doctor, which was concluded in Lagos, saw the telecoms giant, in partnership with Nokia, bringing in handset technicians who carried out free repairs of customers’ smartphones.

The company also offered 10 percent discount on all Nokia smartphones purchased, while it gave away Nokia and Glo freebies including 200 free mobile apps.

The Phone Doctors visited the Gloworld shop on Victoria Island, Lagos before moving to other shops in Lekki, Ikeja Mall, Apapa, Surulere and ended in Yaba Gloworld at weekend.

The Phone Doctor project will proceed to other Gloworld shops in the country on dates to be announced in the second phase of the project.

According to Globacom’s Head of Gloworld, Brenda Akhigbe, the Phone Doctor services were opened to all customers of the firm. She said bundled SIMs with free data plans were given out to consumers who buy devices during the exercise.

Akhigbe said Globacom was reaching out to mobile phone users in order to deepen their telephone experience. “We consider this service very important to our esteemed customers who would have thrown away their handsets due to minor, reparable faults. Today, we have ‘phone doctors’ who have restored those handsets to live,” Akhigbe said.

One of the Phone Doctors, Mr. Ahmed Usman from Nokia Care revealed that his team repairs, updates and installs new software for customers’ Nokia handsets. “This is a free service to Nokia customers, sponsored by Globacom,”he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By 2017, the number of fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology connections worldwide will cross one billion, according to the latest study by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA). The adoption of the technology will be a game changer on how people use their phones. So far, implementation has been slow because of shortage of devices, dearth of spectrum and desire to recoup investment on 3G. Are operators in the country prepared to embrace this data-centric technology? Lucas Ajanaku asks?

Some mobile telecoms and internet service providers (ISPs) have claimed that they are deploying the fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology to serve their customers. But, the Nigerian Communications Commissio (NCC) said the spectrum for operators to deploy the technology in the country would be available in 2015.

Speaking shortly after the launch of mobile number portability (MNP) in Lagos earlier in the year, NCC Executive Vice Chairman/CEO Dr Eugene Juwah said: “We are about to auction LTE licences. We are upgrading people on 800MHZ to LTE. We are also going to auction our 3.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz.

“They are not in the custody of the NCC but with the NBC (Nigerian Broadcasting Commission). They (NBC) have agreed to make it available in 2015. It took us five years to do this. We are a serious member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).”

Against this backdrop, some operators have said the NCC lacked the powers to ‘regulate technology’ deployment for service delivery in the telecom sector.

Caught up in the web of this confusion, a journalist sought clarification from the NCC at a forum in Lagos last week.

But Customer Care Executive at MTN, Akinwale Goodluck, a lawyer, answered the question. He said the talk about 4G or 3G was just about speed which depended on the experience of the user at that particular point in time. His explanation left many who are not engineers more confused.

According to the new findings of the United Kingdom (UK)-based GSMA, 4G-LTE users consume 1.5GB (gigabytes) of data monthly on the average, almost twice the average amount consumed by non-LTE users. GSMA is an association of mobile operators and related companies devoted to supporting the standardisation, deployment and promotion of GSM mobile telephone system.

The findings showed that by 2017, it is expected that LTE will account for about one in eight of the more than eight billion mobile connections forecast by that point, up from 176 million LTE connections at the end of 2013.

Nearly 500 LTE networks are forecast to be in service across 128 countries, roughly double the number of live LTE networks today.

Chief Strategy Officer at the GSMA Hyunmi Yang said: “Since the launch of the first commercial 4G-LTE networks in late 2009, we are seeing deployments accelerate across the globe.”

The study calculated that about 20 per cent of the global population is currently within LTE network coverage range. As operators continue to expand LTE coverage over the next few years, it is forecast that LTE networks will be available to half of the world’s population by 2017, the group noted.

In the United States (US), LTE networks cover more than 90 per cent of the population, compared to 47 per cent coverage in Europe and 10 in Asia.

The US accounts for almost half (46 per cent) of global LTE connections. US, South Korea and Japan account for 80 per cent.

Asia, however, is expected to account for almost half (47 per cent) of all LTE connections by 2017 as LTE networks are rolled out in major markets, such as China and India.

The study also found that, in most cases, the migration to 4G-LTE is happening considerably faster than the earlier migration from 2G to 3G.

In developing economies like Nigeria’s, operators said LTE users could generate average revenue per user (ARPU) of between seven and 20 times greater than non-LTE users. In developed markets however, operators have found that LTE can generate an ARPU uplift ranging from between 10 per and 40 per cent.

Four out of five mobile operators that have acquired ‘new’ spectrum since January 2010 have been allocated airwaves aimed at supporting the launch of LTE networks.

But all hopes are not lost in Nigeria and Africa. According to Balancing Act, since the beginning of this year, there have been at least a dozen live LTE implementations on the continent. Many operators have invested significantly into 3G and its upwards variants to 3.75G.

Airtel Nigeria, for instance, said it has since upgraded to 3.75G. Its Chief Executive Officer, Segun Ogunsanya, said it had done 4G-LTE field test around Banana Island, Ikoyi where it recorded a resounding success.

“These operators have a dilemma because as with the beginnings of 3G, so it will be with 4G. There is what can most easily be described as the “sheeps’ rush” phenomenon. Once one operator enters the market with LTE, it’s not a case of what’s the carefully worked out “business case.

“The next most competitive operator has to have its own LTE offering. As with 3G, it will start in all the larger markets and then cascade down over 24-36 months to nearly all African countries,” noted Balancing Act, adding that so far, there are 16 live implementations, 11 of which are mobile operators-driven while the remaining six are ISPs-driven.

The few numbers of ISPs available on 4GLTE technology signposts the fact that Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), as an ISP technology, is not yet facing any significant threat to its predominance in the African ISP sector. According to Wikipedia, WiMAX is a wireless communications standard designed to provide between 30 to 40 megabit-per-second data rates.

Balancing Act said Econet implementation of 4G-LTE in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, is almost a pilot but added that because there is public access, its been included in the live implementations. Also Orange’s implementation in Mauritius is restricted only to the island of Rodrigues.

Both mobile operator and ISP coverage is currently focused on high value business and household areas. But following the take-up pattern of 3G, this is expected to change rapidly over the next 12-18 months.

Director, Spectranet, Chief Ezekiel Fatoye said, the firm is eyeing a pan-Nigeria deployment of 4G-LTE services. He said the services are already live in Lagos, Abuja and other major cities in the country, promising to cover the whole country soon.

There appears to be a further approximately 16 mobile operator LTE implementations in the pipeline and two more from ISPs.

The management of VDT Communications has presented its financial report for the year ended December 31, 2012 to shareholders.

Speaking at the company’s sixth Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, its Managing Director, Abiodun Omoniyi, said the firm recorded an 11.84 per cent growth in profitability during the period under review.

A further breakdown showed that the firm grossed N862 million representing a 56.2 per cent over the results of the preceding year.

Also, the company’s shareholders’ funds rose by 35 per cent and a 30 percent growth in new customer acquisition.

The outgoing Chairman, Tunji Gafaar, had while expressing delight at the financials and commending management for handwork, steadfastness and

diligence, announced the board’s approval of 79 kobo for every ordinary share of N1 held by members whose name were on the register as the end of the financial year subject to withholding tax.

The highlight of the ceremony was the re-election and election of old and new members of board, including former Inspector General of Police, Dr Musiliu Smith as the new chairman of the board as well as Alhaji Umar Abdulahi and Malam Garba Imam as directors in addition to old members like Abiodun Omoniyi (Managing Director), Tunji Gafaar and Olaolu Adewole as its directors.

he Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disagreed with telecoms operators over the cause of constant drop in the quality of telecoms services (QoS) offered to mobile phone end users in the country.

While the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) believes the QoS could only be addressed if other factors such as dearth of infrastructure, especially power, security, bottlenecks in securing right of way (RoW), multiple regulation/taxation and others are addressed. But the regulator disagreed, arguing that the operators have already taken steps to address some of the issues.

The regulator and operators spoke in Lagos at a forum organised by the ATCON.

ALTON President Gbenga Adebayo, alluding to the theft and vandalism of telecoms infrastructure in the country, said the infrastructure were not being operated in outer space, adding that until the peculiar challenges of the society were addressed before subscribers could think of getting quality services.

According to him, resort to fines and other sanctions may not enthrone good QoS in the country. He lamented that the construction works going around the country was aggravating the problem as earth-moving machines deployed to sites usually end up excavating optic fibre cables buried under the earth surface while the engineers blame ignorance for their action.

Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr Ikemefuna Juwah, differs, arguing that the “business model” adopted by some of the operators was also part of the reason for having QoS challenges.

He said power hadbeen addressed through the provision of generators at the various base transmission stations (BTS) by the operators.

He said after the imposition of fines on the operators, the operators came to Abuja where the NCC agreed to lower the key performance indicators (KPIs), adding that since then, the operators have been keeping with the KPIs.

Juwah lamented, however,that the end-user experience has not been anything to write home about because the subscribers keep complaining about drop calls, inability to make calls, cross-talking and other challenges.

He said this development would force the regulator to revert to the old KPI so that end-user experience could be better.

“After the last fine, we agreed to lower the KPIs. They have been passing our monthly assessment, but the end user experience has not been too good as people still complain. So, we will go back to the former KPIs in January,” Juwah said.

Over one month ago, BlackBerry sold its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to search engine Google. Since then, the download of BBM apps has been smooth but the company remains in dire straits, reports LUCAS AJANAKU.

A 300-level student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State, Ebun Ayetoto, said when she woke up one morning about two months ago and discovered that the screen of her BlackBerry phone had gone blank, her world literally came down.

According to her, the mobile device suffered the same problem before and she got N8000 from her uncle to fix the problem at the Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos.

“I bought the BlackBerry Bold 2 for N2,7000 a few years ago. I enjoyed the device until it started misbehaving. The first time, it was screen problem and I paid N8000 to change the screen. It happened again the second time and I spent another N7000 to fix it.

“So, when it happened the third time, I was thinking of how to raise money to buy another one when I heard that BlackBerry had sold its BBM to Google and made it available to Android and iPhones. I quickly changed my mind and settled for Tecno P5, which I bought for N16000, downloaded the BBM from Google Play,” she said.

According to her, since the transition, the experience has been delightful. She no longer contends with constantly charging the battery of her mobile phone and her BB messages are not longer delivered late. “Message delivery is in lightening speed, very fast. There is no more issue of hanging network which used to be my experience when I was using BBM on BlackBerry,” she added.

She said other advantages she enjoys are the use of dual subscriber identity module (SIM) phone and use of the same account on BBM on BlackBerry phone and BBM on Android.

Another user who simply identified himself as Wasiu said since he bought his GTide GPad 4, he now pings on his iPad which does not only have television but radio and other features.

It has been more than a month after BBM started the iOS and Android platforms and it is still doing remarkably well on the iPhone. BlackBerry announced that during the first week of the roll-out, it generated 20 million new active users, adding that BBM service now boasts about 100 million monthly active users.

It said during its first week, BBM was the top free overall app in 35 countries in Google Play and in 107 countries in the App StoreSM, and continues to maintain a strong position in key markets such as Canada, United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Indonesia and much of the Middle East and others.

A few days ago, BBM was top of five iOS app for downloads in no fewer than 50 countries, including important markets like Nigeria, South Africa, Argentina, Colombia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Canada and UK.

Even in markets like India and UK where WhatsApp, another instant messaging platform, has its stronghold, BBM continues to do so well, demonstrating uncanny longevity in Latin American, African, European and Asian iPhone markets.

Speaking on the development, Executive Vice President, BBM at BlackBerry, Andrew Bocking said: “It is great to see so many people downloading BBM, but the true measurement for us is engagement – the connections being made and the conversations in which our BBM community engages. The power of BBM has always been the active, real conversations and interaction that our customers enjoy.

“From here on out, we will focus on active users of BBM and will no longer focus on simple download numbers.”

But the Waterloo, the Canada-based mobile device manufacturer, may be experiencing dwindling fortunes among the youthful segment of its customers in some markets.

For instance, while BlackBerry remains the most widely used handset among South African students, new research has shown that its future in that demographic is less rosy.

According to the findings of the South Africa High-tech Student 2013 research, released by World Wide Worx and Student Brands, the brand is synonymous with affordability, courtesy of BlackBerry Internet and messaging service (BIS and BBM).

The survey, according to MyBroadband, found that more than half (57 per cent) of students used a BlackBerry handset, with Nokia a distant second at 20 per cent, with Samsung third (14 per cent), and the iPhone fourth at five per cent.

Only 15 per cent of respondents said they wanted to buy a BlackBerry as their next device. As many as 40 per cent said they wanted an iPhone next, while 29 per cent would prefer a Samsung.

Nokia fell back to only eight per cent. The prospects for less popular brands showed slight improvement, with Sony moving from one per cent of current usage to four per cent of planned usage, and HTC from one per cent to three per cent.

Analysts say the $1billion injection it secured from Fairfax Financials and its partners may just be a time-buying strategy as its future does not look any bright unless there’s a major improvement.

Sales have plummeted by almost 50 per cent due to lacklustre demand for BlackBerry 10 devices and a limited market for legacy BlackBerry 7.

Canaccord Genuity, a global full-service investment bank focused on growth companies with operations in 11 countries, released its new research which showed that BlackBerry’s operating margin for mobile devicres stands at 55 per cent in third quarter of this year.

Analyst at Canaccord Gebuity, Michael Walkley wrote: “While we maintain our belief BlackBerry will ultimately end up selling the company due to the difficult competitive smartphone market and low probability that BlackBerry 10 can return BlackBerry to sustained profitability, we now beleive a breakup is more likely than outright sale and fundamentals will continue to deteriorate over a now longer public sale process under new management.”

But despite the turbulent time in the global smartphone market, data from advisory firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that BlackBerry remains a relevant and popular brand on the African continent.

Smartphone shipments to Africa were up 21.5 per cent year on year for the third quarter of this year, and now accounts for 18 per cent of the overall African mobile phone market’s volume.

How can connectivity be improved? This was the focus of the AfricaCom Conference held in South Africa last week. It was attended by telecom operators on the continent. LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

Virtually all the issues militating against the development of the information communication technology (ICT) sector in the continent were thrown up for discussion at the Africa Com conference held last week at Cape Town, South Africa.

There were several paper presentations with breakout sessions where panelists examined topical issues like mobile money, direct billing, customer experience management (CEM) and others.

Mobile money

Mobile money was introduced in Nigeria more than two years ago but the scheme, driven by the banks, have remained largely unpopular. It has succeeded in other climes while it has not done well in others.

Group Vice President, Executive Business Line, Mobile Authentication, Glesecke and Devrient, Wolfgang Decker identified the absence of a global regulatory standard, trust and low awareness as some of the factors inhibiting the adoption and wider penetration of mobile money services in Africa.

Speaking at the International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa, venue of the just concluded annual Africacom, Decker said though the future of financial inclusion is hinged on mobile money, a lot still needed to be done to put the continent on the global limelight..

He spoke on Securing the Future of Mobile Money, and stressed that while banks manage cash inefficiently, there is high level of economic uncertainty arising thereto.

In what he described as impossible world, he said proactive regulation, traceability, low influence on economic uncertainty, fragmented identity were the order of the day.

He said traditional payment models, fees for payment, disoriented system for services payment and the predilection to hold liquidity were also the features of the impossible, adding that the cloud world where money moves round real time through the internet is the best.

At a breakout session, operators insisted that network interoperability among telecoms operators on one hand, and interoperability between banks, merchants and customers, on the other, is vital to drive mobile money in African countries.

They argued at one of the breakout sessions that unless the issue of interoperability was addressed, African countries may not go far in driving the mobile money initiative, which had already been launched in most African countries.

Senior Manager, Network Rollout at Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Valentine Amadi who represented Nigeria at a panel discussion during one of the breakout sessions, said interoperability was central to mobile money growth in Africa, since the mobile wallet is linked to the network operators and the issue of transferring money from the customer to the recipient, through authorised mobile money agents, depended on the network.

Director, Orange Money, Botswana, Mr. Moussa Dao, agrees with Amadi. He said interoperability should not be an issue, insisting that customers should be allowed to choose any network of choice. “Interoperability should not be an issue if we must achieve financial inclusion,” he said.

Another panelist, Head, Strategic Partnerships, Tyme Capital, South Africa, Dominique Collet said interoperability would unlock the future needs of mobile money in the continent and drive mobile money transactions. He stressed the need to educate customers, train customers and merchants as well.

On models, Amadi said most African countries adopted the telco-led model, where telecoms operators were allowed to drive the entire process, but expressed regret that in Nigeria and some African countries, the bank-led model was adopted, which he said, would continue to stunt growth and development in the sector. Operators who own the infrastructure and customers are confined to palying docile role in the scheme of things.

According to him, telecoms operators have the network and the biggest customer base to drive the scheme in Africa than the banks.

“Telecoms operators are closer to the people with more customer base, while the banks are better off in designing financial products that will drive mobile money. The banks are only marketing to those that have bank accounts but the telecoms operators are better positioned to address the unbanked, since they have the reach and the technology,” he said.

He explained that the unbanked constitutes a large chunk of the African population and efforts must be done to quickly integrate them into the formal sector.

According to him, for Africa to achieve fast financial inclusion through mobile money, the services of telecoms operators need to improve. “It is not the fear of going to the bank or meeting the agents that will slow the growth rate of mobile money in Africa, but the speed of the agents’ network and the telecoms network in sending money,” he warned, adding that there was need for better remuneration of agents too.

In his presentation, Sales Director in charge of Russia, Middle East and Africa at MoreMagic Solutions, Mr. Deepak Sachdeva said: “Lack of open system is hindering growth of mobile money in Africa. Operators and merchants need to open the market and come up with innovations that will be relevant to subscribers and enable them patronise any network of choice.”

Customer experience management (CEM)

Customer experience management was another issue that came to the fore at the forum. The need to evolve strategies to win and retain customers was highlighted.

In his presentation, Head, Customer and User Experience, Vodacom Ghana, Stephen Essien, said the key success factor in winning the war against dominant operators in the continent is customer experience.

Speaking on Integrating Customer Experience Management (CEM) into new Business Models and Differentiation Strategies, he said customers were now moving out of pricing, out of technology to customer-centric approach to choosing service providers.

Nigeria’s representative on the panel discussion, Head, Customer Experience, Etisalat Nigeria, Abiola Edun, defined CEM as the sum total of the interaction customers have with their service providers. She said CEM is at the centre of Etisalat business, a development that has earned the telco the popularity it has among the youth segment of the society in the country where it has operated for five years and yet recorded huge success.

Edun said while the telco has moved CEM to the level of offering customers personalised innovative services, the key message is that the voice of the customers must not be ignored but listened to attentively.

According to her, the telco’s strategies of keeping close to the customers include knowledge of their location, data and voice usage. This it does through the use of intelligent support channels, social media such as Twitter, Facebook and others.

She urged telcos to keep investing on CEM so that the user-experience on their networks will keep standing them out of the pack.

Essien urged operators not to develop product on revenue target basis but on what customers want. Because of the pivotal roles customer experience managers play in the success of business, he said they should decide voice and data tariff and even places where base transmission stations (BTS) should be sited, adding that customer segmentation needed to be done to separate high spenders and influential customers (whose comments could rock the boat).

Another panelist, Customer Care Executive, MTN Jemima Kotei Walsh, opined that CEM should be accorded the top-bottom approach drive, led by the chief executive officer of the organisation. According to her, CEM is strategic business thinking, arguing that customers must always decide.

She said at MTN, there is a project in place on customer experience management driven the CEO where the team meets bimonthly and quarterly with customers’ forum.

Direct billing brouhaha

Internet firms and operators expressed divergent views on the merits of direct operator billing as a way of stimulating the development of mobile application in Africa.

While internet players such as search engine giant, Google and Mozilla were in favour of operators billing as a way to deliver a wide-scale billing mechanism that would enable app developers make money, operators feel otherwise.

Head, New Products, sub-Saharan Africa Google South Africa, Brett StClair, said Google would love to have as many payment mechanisms as possible available through the Google Play Store.

“The challenge for us is paying out to the app developers and currently, we don’t do it in Africa. We only have 50,000 people working for us. So we prioritise and Africa is lower down on the list. But this is an opportunity for operators,” he said.

He said there was growing number of apps developers on the continent with little knowledge about how to make money, adding that they look to the enterprise market instead of the business to client (B2C) market in order to build a revenue stream. This is the most straightforward way to build a business, he argued.

Vice President, Apps and Marketplace, Mozilla, Rick Fant spoke in favour of operator billing on the continent where payment mechanisms are limited. “I think there are challenges around the business model. Operators have to come some way and set some standards, help us pay the developers,” he said.

But Chief Commercial Officer, MTN South Africa, Pieter Verkade said operator billing is in some ways a method of the past because the model is economically challenging.

According to him, there are a lot of payment mechanisms available to allow app developers make money, adding that operators were building interfaces that allow app developers to bill for their services.

Verkade said the telco had built its own app developers programme to help stimulate the market. He said: “Most of the European players don’t have time for Africa yet and that is a bigger concern.”