Source 234next.com: 17 January 2010

During the recent Yuletide season, many mobile phone users were frustrated over their inability to communicate with their loved ones due to network congestion. After nine years in the country, telephone subscribers expect network providers to have put such issues behind them.

What’s more, many of the text messages sent during the period were not be delivered to those they are meant for, even though service charges were deducted by the network providers. Patrick Okonji, who uses MTN, described his experience as “Terrible!”. “During the Christmas break it was impossible for me to send out my good will messages to my family and friends. The SMS (Short Message Service), I tried to send out through my mobile phone were not sent, as they were pending. I had no choice so, I had to make calls but the network was unstable as sometime the calls cut off before the end of my conversation,” he said.

Emmanuel Adenekan, a Globacom subscriber, also admitted to experiencing similar difficulties. “I experienced network difficulties this festive season. I guess because everyone wanted to send messages and make calls at the same time to wish them (family and friends) well for the Christmas and New Year. I did not have that opportunity until a day or two later when the network was stable.”

The story was not different for Chioma Omeire, a Zain subscriber. “The network this season was terrible. I live at Surulere, I could not call or send text messages on December 31, and on New Year day. I was very disappointed about it as I could not wish my friends well. Some SMS were not sent and money was deducted from my phone for them.”

Last year, Nigeria was rated as the biggest telecoms market in Africa by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with a subscribers’ base of over 70 million, topping South Africa, which had occupied that position.

The Secretary of Africa Telecom Development Initiative, Kenneth Ugbechie, explained that as the emphasis on GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) increases in Nigeria, it affects the network. “It is true that we experience network glitches, but that’s mainly because we are relying so much on mobile telephony to communicate. This has put much pressure on the networks unlike in other advanced societies where mobile telephony is actually a supplementary or support phone service and not the major service,” he said. “Do not also forget that the mobile phone technology, which the nation relies on heavily, is satellite-based and therefore subject to other elements like heavy rain among others. All of this tends to undermine the networks.”

Promos affect network capacity
Last year was a competitive year for the telecoms operators, as more network providers like Etisalat, came on board. In a bid to increase their subscribers’ base, operators launched different offers that in turn affect their network. Some of these included Zain’s Naira Rain Promo; Etisalat’s 9jillions Promo; Globacom’s Text 4 Millions Promo; MTN’s FIFA promo; MTN Yello Bounty Promo; VISAFONE’s Fortunes Promo and many others. In December, Globacom launched its “Biig Dash offer”, it, however, did not anticipate the impact the offer would have on its network capacity.

Consequently the promo was cancelled. “We found out that we did not have enough capacity. At the moment, Glo is opening more switches to handle the processing of calls. Some switches have been deployed but I cannot say exactly the number of switches that has been commissioned now,” said an official of Globacom, who spoke to NEXT in confidence about the cancellation of the promo.

Although spokespersons for the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the industry regulator refused to speak on subscribers’ grievances of payments for services not rendered, it had earlier warned that operators who experienced congestion on account of their promos will be sanctioned. However, the NCC did not give details about the sanctions.

Investing in network expansion
Mr. Ugbechie urged network provider to work towards expansion in order to solve the problem of congestion. “Operators can get out of the bind of network congestion by investing more in network expansion. They should not sell services more than their networks can carry and I think a lot of them are doing this. It has to be closely monitored by the NCC and stamped out.

“Remember that it was because of poor services like this that NCC had to sanction some operators by asking them to make refund to consumers. This is as far as the Act can permit the commission. But I will advise the operators to think more of QoS (Quality of Service) than profit margins because at the end of the day, the consumer now has the option of choice. They can drop the service of one and migrate to another, he said.”

Mr. Ugbechie also said that there is need to improve on broadband capacity as Nigerian subscriber base increases. He added that “Broadband guarantees better service delivery for voice, data and video. This must be done in addition to achieving regular power supply. For Nigeria to get out of this mess, the original backbone of the sector which is NITEL has to be enhanced. The second national carrier which is Globacom has to quicken its optic fibre cabling infrastructure and thirdly, power supply to base stations and in the country generally has to improve,” he said.

A source in MTN, who spoke under anonymity said the operators are not to blame for the problem. “Operators are on a continuous process for improvement, as the number of subscribers on a network cannot be anticipated. Some of the congestion experienced on the network are not congestion but might be as a result of network failure at a particular location. Sometimes, we have setbacks such as some network is taking more capacity than it can accommodate. Also, the challenges of running a telecoms business in Nigeria ranging from power failure, to diesel supply, tax issues, infrastructure, manpower, land issues among others can affect the network of a particular site,” the source said.

Emeka Oparah, the spokesperson of Zain Nigeria explained that the challenge of power supply has compelled the firm to improve on other alternative for energy. This, he said, will help increase customer satisfaction optimise operating cost. “We are heavily investing in green alternative efficient sources of energy to significantly lower dependence on generators and diesel (fuel) as well as benefit the environment which is already imperilled by the large volume of generators which many homes and office rely on for power supply daily.

“We have also begun deploying alternative energy system at some of our base stations across the country amidst rising national electric power supply problem so as to tackle what has become a critical element in the quest to achieve a lower downtime and provide customers better quality of service. In practice, we are deploying battery system in sites which predominately run power generators, a hybrid power supply system,” he said.

Mr. Oparah said 300 sites are currently powered by alternative sources of power supply. Unlike the other networks, the chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria Steven Evans, said if anything, his network’s capacity is under-utilised. “At the moment, the capacity of our network can accommodate six million subscribers. We did not face any congestion last year on our network, as we have 2.5 million subscribers now on our network. So, network congestion has not been an issue for Etisalat since operation,” Mr. Evans said.

Consequently, he said the company’s major preoccupation for this year is not only to improve on its network, but also increase its subscribers base. “This year, we would increase our capacity that would be able to support 10 million subscribers. Our target is 10 million and we want to ensure that we have the capacity so that we do not have any congestion issues,” he said.

Other major mobile operators like Visafone, Globacom, Starcooms, MTN, Multi-Links refused to respond to NEXT enquiries on what they are doing to alleviate their customers’ frustrations.

Phone Nigeria Etisalat, Globacom, MTN, Visafone, Zain