The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 4G

  • Report: 4G has 4% users in Nigeria

    Despite the hype about the ubiquity of 4G connections by the telcos in the country, 44 per cent of mobile subscribers in the country are using 3G technology while only four per cent use 4G technology as compared to over 18 per cent 4G penetration in South Africa and 16 per cent in Angola, a new report, Jumia Mobile Report, unveiled has shown.

    According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country has more than 63million subscription on broadband while in the voice segment, there are 173million lines as at March this year which translates to 91 per cent teledensity.

    According to the report, the country will be the only one in Africa to contribute 700 million new global subscribers by 2025.

    Telecommunications and Information Services, a sub-sector of the Information Communications Technology (ICT), contributed 77 per cent of the entire sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP). Overall, the mobile telecoms sub-sector contributed 7.4 per cent to the country’s total GDP last year, compared to 5.5 per cent in 2017.

    Nigeria’s mobile broadband penetration is forecast to rise to 55 per cent of the population by 2025, with 70 per cent having 3G connectivity and 17 per cent having access to 4G networks.

    The report noted that 5G network with the 26 gigahertz (GHz), 38 GHz and 42 GHz spectrum bands will be rolled out by 2020 while some 700 million new mobile subscribers from various countries across the world will push the total number of global mobile subscribers to six billion between now and 2025.

    Interestingly, Nigeria has been identified among these countries, with others being India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, United States (U.S.), and Brazil. “It is predicted that Nigeria will contribute four per cent of the estimated 700 million new global mobile subscribers, making it the only country in Africa marked with a significant contribution to increasing mobile penetration in the world. By this quota, it is expected that 28 million new mobile subscribers will emerge from Nigeria between 2019 and 2025, that is, an average of seven million new mobile subscribers annually, if the country is to meet its quota,” the report said.

    It said Asian brands have consistently enjoyed massive patronage because of their Africa-specific strategy of introducing lower price point smartphones into the Nigerian market. In 2018, Fero, Samsung, Nokia, Infinix and Tecno remained the customers’ favourites and the top-selling mobile brands on Jumia. “It is interesting that a one-time king of mobile phone, Nokia is gradually returning to the limelight, riding on its durability claim. Infinix continues to lead the pack, year on year. The average price of smartphones continues on a downward trajectory, as it dipped to $95 in 2018, from $117 in 2016, and $216 in 2014. This development is laudable as again, the major driver of this trend is attributed to the influx of Asian brands specifically targeted for the Nigerian market,” it added.

    During the period under review, across the globe, there were over five billion unique mobile subscribers, and 60 per cent of the connection was through smartphones. Internet users peaked at 3.6 billion, that is, almost half of the world population had mobile internet access.

    “In Nigeria, there were over 172 million mobile subscribers, accounting for a penetration rate of 87 per cent of the population. This figure represented a 6.4 per cent growth increase, compared to 162 million subscribers in 2017.

    “Over 112 million Nigerians had access to the internet in 2018, representing 56 per cent of the population. This accounted for an increase of 14.32 per cent year-on-year from 2017. The availability of lower price point phones still remains the major driver of smartphone penetration. At the end of 2018, there were over 36 million smartphone users, representing a penetration of 18.37 per cent. While the number of smartphone users might have increased year-on-year, its penetration is still very insignificant.

     

    “Internet connectivity and the availability of affordable smartphones continue to drive an increasing uptake of social media networks. The number of active social media users rose from 17 million in 2017 to 24 million at the end of 2018. This represents a 12 per cent penetration of the country’s population,” the Jumia Mobile Report said.

     

    In 2018, Chrome continued to lead the pack among the four major browsers Jumia customers use to access the website, taking up 43 per cent. The reason for this is simple: Chrome has higher system requirements, which make customers’ browsing experience faster. Eighteen per cent of Jumia customers accessing the website did so via Android Webview. Opera Mini on the other hand, is a lighter browser in terms of data usage and is popular among new mobile internet users who have lower incomes and can’t afford costly internet data packs; and took up 16% per cent. Other browsers used, accounted for 23 per cent.

    Notably, 57 per cent of Jumia customers visited the website via mobile web, 28% via the mobile App and 15 per cent via the Desktop in 2018.

     

    There is however, an increasing migration from shopping on the mobile web to the Jumia App. This shift, although gradual, is attributed to the fact that the App consumes less data, is more convenient and more affordable due to the frequent discounts offered. It is a commendable development, and a higher conversion is expected in 2019.

     

    Nigeria’s largest commercial city, Lagos, had the highest number of mobile phone orders in 2018, followed by Abuja, Rivers (Port Harcourt), Edo, and Delta. The mobile phone category still remains one of the top selling categories on the Jumia website

     

  • Upgrading Buhari to 4G tech

    Upgrading Buhari to 4G tech

    Unwittingly, President Buhari exposed a fortnight ago the dingy side of the digital divide he inhabits on the eve of the nation’s Independence Day anniversary. The occasion was the presentation of a picture book in Abuja. Responding to perspectives offered by a youthful panel of arts entrepreneurs on how to maximize the potential of the creative industry in a digital age, PMB’s prognosis was, at best, analogue.

    The Federal Ministry of Information, he argued, should devote more resources to expand existing radio infrastructure because, according to him, they offer a broader platform to reach more Nigerians.

    Before you begin to wonder the theoretical basis of that presidential conclusion, here was his simple thesis: “Today, those who have television may not have light. As for newspapers, anything above N100, most people cannot buy because that means a lot from the salary they may be earning. But people will always listen to radio to get information because it is free.”

    With a president unabashedly revealing such bias, I bet all any smart Information Minister needs to do to have his budget for 2017 doubled is simply pad (that treacherous word again!) his draft with all manner of proposals relating to radio, radio and radio.

    Ha!

    But I dare say PMB could not possibly be speaking of contemporary Nigeria documented to boast a greater young population who are not only quite restless in the social media but are at home with all the accoutrements of the new info tech age. While the nation’s population is put at over 180m as at 2016, those under-15 account for 45 percent of that figure. Those between the age bracket of 15 and 24 approximate 19.3 percent. Roughly put, Nigerians under 30 account for close to 70 percent of our national population.

    As against the Mungo Park-bequeathed transistor radio Buhari seems to be romanticizing, the young Nigerian netizens are addicted to Facebook, WhatsApp, Face Time, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc in their everyday conversation. (In fact, the president’s daughter, Zara, is a popular figure on Twitter and Instagram.) Really, the new buzz word of the day is the revolutionary 4G LTE (long term evolution) technology currently being aggressively launched across the country by Glo.

    By the way, Glo, a wholly indigenous telco led by Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr. , accounts for a substantial chunk of the active 150 million phone lines in the bourgeoning telecom market and has so carved a niche for itself that it is now commonly addressed as the “Grandmaster of Data”. (Alongside the likes of Dangote, Glo is also flying the Nigerian flag proudly across the African continent, regardless of the stifling climate at home.) So robust, the ICT sub-sector, of which the GSM telephony is biggest player, accounts for a colossal  8 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2014.

    So, in this light, to be most charitable, PMB’s radio postulation can be entertained as perhaps only true of Nigeria of the early 60s with a population of 45.2m. He must be speaking nostalgically of the disappearing traditional society where town-crier beats gong about to draw communal attention. Today, anyone still clinging to that memory will be classified outdated. For such reading is now representative of the lifestyle of only a small sample of the populace. And the curators of this fading culture would be found largely in Buhari’s own section of the country.

    In their own youthful days, PMB’s generation doubtless made an art of writing and exchanging rose-scented mail by post. But texting and pinging are the new forms of expression among young Nigerians of today.

    The concept of dictionary and research is also changing. Those days, people literally wrestled with the “big words” and crammed them up from the hard copy. Today, the average young Nigerian would rather take the short-cut by simply consulting google on the go. And with more giga bite now coming for less sum, the electronic channel becomes even more convenient and affordable for researchers.

    Gone also are the days the state could monopolize the airwaves. Thanks to You Tube, non-state actors have turned the cyber space to no man’s land.

    This point needs be stressed with a view to not only liberating PMB from the iron captivity of archaic understanding of trend but also assisting him to better appreciate the demographics of the nation he is supposed to be leading. That should, in turn, help in framing clearer messages as well as devising better communication strategies to effectively engage various segments of the population. Without appreciating this nitty gritty, policy-makers will continue to act in vain. Without understanding the language of the dominant segment of the population, how then can a leader possibly hope to inspire such folks to action.

    If in doubt, PMB is humbly advised to upgrade to the Glo 4G tech and will surely find countless solutions to everyday challenges through a surfeit of APPs on offer. By simply deploying appropriate APP, for instance, the president would not have to re-enact the hilarious antiquity witnessed pictorially by the nation at large sometime last year as he meticulously undertook a count of his vast herd in his Daura ranch before manually keeping the records in an exercise book with a BIC pen.

    Henceforth, a software will seamlessly keep such and update same electronically on his cell-phone. And when hopefully the government-built grazing reserve (cattle ranch?) comes on stream, with a giant screen enabled by 4G tech, PMB can conveniently monitor the progress of his prized cows from the privacy of his bedroom in Aso Rock, real time.

    Henceforth, whichever corner of the universe the president finds himself in hot pursuit of either FDI (foreign direct investment) or loot hidden by past political leaders, the real-life effect 4G tech brings will enable him have a video-conference via a multi-media screen with the Federal Executive Council and engage each minister more intimately as though he were physically occupying the iconic leather swivel chair overlooking the main chamber inside Aso Rock.

    In medicine, 4G means our local surgeons are better placed to create a virtual theatre by simply co-opting other experts on the other side of the Atlantic and share critical knowledge and experience via a giant screen.

    Not wanting to be left behind, this writer patiently waited on the queue in Lagos few days ago to have his primary work tools – i-Pad and i-Phone – upgraded to 4G tech on the Glo network. The experience was simply amazing. One had missed the second edition of the Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump debate in the early hours of last Monday (Nigerian time). But one only needed to activate google search hours later and the abridged version popped up with lightning speed and the picture was of high definition and the sound of digital clarity.

    Momentarily, I forgot we are in a recession.

  • MTN to retrain Visafone workers for 4G technology

    Visafone workers inherited by MTN as a result of the acquisition of the code division multiple access (CDMA) operator are to be retrained so they have the requisite skills for engaging the new 4G or long term evolution (LTE) technology.

    Sector analysts say the acquisition is expected to provide the MTN a robust voice and data platform of Visafone and cater for booming internet population of the country.

    It was gathered that selected workers of Visafone are likely to commence the retraining immediately ahead of the launch of the new data service.

    MTN Executive, Ms. Amina Oyagbola, said the acquisition which seeks to leverage resources for service enhancement is also reflective of the telco’s concerted efforts to deepen the growth and roll out of broadband services across the country currently under 10 per cent to the targeted 30 per cent by 2018 of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of the Federal Government. It will also help to realise other targets of the plan.

    Oyagbola said: “We are committed to exploring avenues for meeting our customers’ increasing data needs in line with our vision ‘to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world to our customers’. As we work to maximise our data capabilities towards achieving broadband of international quality, our objective is to ensure that Nigerians experience a boost in the quality of broadband internet services translating to the much needed enhanced data speeds and value to enhance personal and business productivity.

    “The acquisition of Visafone highlights MTN’s commitment to Nigeria. More capacity will facilitate enhanced product/service offerings and experience in the data space to the delight of our valued customers. Voice is still King. However, data is becoming increasingly important in our everyday lives and our energies are focused on enhancing data and internet services to the benefit of our customers and the country at large.”

    The 4G LTE technology is particularly good for the country and economy because it will create conducive platform for enhanced product/service innovation which will ultimately lead to the creation of new jobs, the analysts added.

    Telecoms industry watchers have commended the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the hitch-free merger, adding that such should be encouraged. “This initiative is widely applauded as a major telecom industry landmark deal,” one of the analysts said.

    With the acquisition deal sealed, MTN is now expected to massively and aggressively leverage the CDMA pedigree of Visafone to roll out premium products that will usher in very good business opportunity for the carrier and Nigerians.

    This is expected to ensure a high quality data services and improve mobile broadband experience for subscribers of Visafone and MTN.

    The acquisition, they say,  is expected to provide the much-needed relief to the booming internet economy by making available quality mobile broadband services through the deployment of state of the art 4G LTE technologies during the year.

    With about 150 million mobile subscribers and about 97 million internet users, Nigeria ranks among the fastest growing countries in terms of mobile subscribers and internet penetration. However, majority of the 97 million internet users today are experiencing narrow band internet at 2G/3G speeds which is particularly frustrating.

  • Ethiopia contracts Huawei to roll out 4G services

    Ethiopia contracts Huawei to roll out 4G services

    In a project expected to benefit over 400,000 mobile subscribers, state-run Ethio Telecom said it has selected Chinese company Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, to roll out a high-speed 4G network in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

    “In terms of allocation, Huawei will be responsible for the expansion of 4G in Addis Ababa, including other mobile services – the 2G, 3G, IP…,” Abdurahim Ahmed, Ethio Telecom’s head of communications said.

    Ethiopia is among few countries in Africa that maintain a state monopoly in telecoms.

    Ethio Telecom remains the only mobile operator in the country with an estimated population of 80 million.

    In a bid to expand its mobile phone infrastructure, Ethiopia signed a $1.6 billion deal with Huawei and ZTE, China’s second-biggest telecoms equipment maker, to double phone subscribers in the country to more than 50 million by 2015, according to a Reuters report.

    The contract was awarded under a long-term loan package to be paid over a 13-year period with an interest rate of “less than 1 percent”, Abdurahim said.

     

    Culled: VENTURES

    AFRICA