Nigerians Unhappy About Celtel's Free Network Calls

by Oluniyi David Ajao
2007-06-30 19:28:59 | Viewed 2443 times

Celtel Nigeria recently announced free calls within its network every Sunday. The catch however is that, subscribers had to load their account with 500 naira, to enjoy an hour of free call, the next Sunday. Not every Nigeria however, is happy with the offer. At least not Yomi Adegboye or Felix Adebayo who both blogged about the issue.

Yomi Adegboye's first problem is with the network capacity of Celtel's network:

The first problem here is that Celtel clearly does not have the network capacity to bear the traffic generated on Sundays now. As such making a call, sending SMS, and even browsing the internet on Sundays on the celtel network is now a nightmare.

I have not been able to get a single call through all day. SMS sending too fail. Browsing the net is a sluggish affair. This was my experience last Sunday as well.

Someone needs to get the NCC on Celtel’s case. Of what use is this free airtime offer if everything grounds to a halt?

He also believes their platform is out-rightly unreliable:

I purchased and loaded a N500 card during the week; yet Celtel did not send any SMS notifying me of my free airtime. Same thing happened last week.

Come to think of it, even if they did send me the notice, of what use would the free airtime be, since I can’t get through to anyone either? My wife, who’s also on Celtel was notified of 60 minutes free airtime for loading N500. The problem is, she has been trying to dial out all afternoon and all she gets is a ‘network busy’ error.

His conclusion sums-up his thoughts:

So much for a bonanza. This, in simple terms, is a rip-off.

Felix Adebayo on the other hand, goes all out to point out things he finds unusual about Celtel's offer:

- You must recharge with at least N500 every week
- You must exhaust the N500 before the end of the week otherwise, you will not be entitled to the free call
- Other networks, like MTN is already offering its subscribers free late night calls for four hours everyday without forcing its subscribers to recharge.

He then goes on to list what he considers to be sideeffects of Celtel's free calls

- It is difficult to reach Celtel networks on Sundays; all you get is “Network Busy”
- If you managed to reach Celtel networks, the quality of the calls is bad
- If you use only Celtel networks, you may find it difficult to reach out or be reached on Sundays.

Felix Adebayo also offered some suggestions to Celtel Nigeria:

- Limit free calls only to late night hours, like MTN. This will avoid congestion on the networks during the day time
- Give free calls without attaching any string to it; don’t force your subscribers to spend minimum of N500 every week to buy recharge cards in order to enjoy one hour free calls.

Are you a Celtel subscriber in Nigeria? What has been your experience using Celtel's free network calls? Share your thoughts on this matter, by posting your comments below.

Felix Adebayo blogs at Phonerism.com while Yomi Adegboye, a self-acclaimed non-conformist pastor and entreprenuer blogs at YomiSays.com

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