Africa

In South Africa, Nokia Siemens Networks selected AIRCOM to provide 2G network optimisation consultation services. These services included both pre- and post-analysis drive testing, capacity planning, site verification and frequency planning. AIRCOM’s expertise was also used to assist in the planning of more than 4,500 cell sites across South Africa in a limited time duration, whilst maintaining the necessary quality levels.

Nokia Siemens Networks also turned to AIRCOM to assist in improving 2G mobile network quality in Nigeria. AIRCOM delivered a range of services to NSN, including drive testing consultancy and Line of Sight (LoS) transmission surveys to optimise network throughput and minimise dropped calls.

“There are now, on average, four mobile operators in each African country, so competition is fierce,” said Fahd Burki – Director EOT, Nokia Siemens Networks Nigeria. “African subscribers do not tolerate poor service quality. We therefore chose to work with AIRCOM to help drive network performance improvements and benefit from its vast knowledge of the African mobile market and competitive pricing tariffs.”

“Africa still has vast growth potential across its wireless communications market,” said Graham Kemp, Regional CEO, Africa, for AIRCOM. “African mobile operators are acutely aware of this and are focusing on driving the best possible service quality to their

customers. By optimising 2G voice and SMS delivery, African operators are laying the best possible foundations for future growth, minimising cost and reducing churn.”

About AIRCOM International

AIRCOM is an independent provider of network and data management tools and services. The company specialises in end-to-end network planning, sharing, outsourcing and OSS optimisation for IP and cellular networks.

Zain

AIRCOM has deployed a team of more than 20 consultants from offices throughout Africa to deliver a service solution for both radio and transmission network planning that supports Zain’s ambitious 3.5G network rollout targets.  Following the planning and optimisation of the network, AIRCOM will spend a year in the country training the Zain Ghana local team, prior to a complete competence transfer upon commercial launch.

Formerly MTC, Zain has pledged to invest more $400 million (USD) in Ghana to deliver a reliable, high quality 3.5G mobile network and position the country as one of Africa’s leading mobile communications innovators.

“Zain is investing in Ghana as its people need and deserve a reliable, up-to-date mobile network that allows customers to communicate easily by voice, text, picture and video, while accessing internet content and services on the move,” said Siyabongo Zulu, Operations Director at Zain Ghana.  “It is apparent that AIRCOM’s network expertise and understanding of Ghana’s specific market requirements meant it was the perfect partner to help deliver these services, so we’re delighted to welcome the team on board.”

Commenting on the deal, Graham Kemp, Hub MD for AIRCOM in Africa said:  “To be selected by a leading innovator like Zain to support its ambitious growth into Africa is further evidence that AIRCOM is quickly becoming the service partner of choice in the developing mobile communications marketplace.  We look forward to working with the Zain team to deliver a reliable, quality network to the people of Ghana.”

Many mobile phones attempt to do everything from simple texting, to GPS navigation but these phones are better at some things than the others thus the need to classify them. Before now, I had used an i-mate JAQ3 Windows 5 powered-smartphone for business, along with a Nokia 3250 XpressMusic for photography and personal entertainment whilst on the move. I have since upgraded to Nokia E71 smartphone along with a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

What makes the E71 tick?

Nokia E71

Many. The Nokia E71 is a serious business phone ground-up. It comes with a full QWERTY keyboard layout and is enclosed in a strong metallic case. My initial disappointment about the E71 not having a touch screen was quickly dwarfed by its intuitive cursor and comfortable keypad. I find the keypad so comfortable that I find myself sending text messages more often. Matter of fact, I typed the entire text for this article on the Nokia E71.

The smartphone comes with QuickOffice. This mobile version of Office suite software allows you to create or open Word documents, PowerPoint Presentations or Excel Worksheets.

It also comes with a built-in mobile email client and you can also opt for Nokia Email software (Blackberry-like) if the in-built email client does not meet all your email needs. You can send new messages via good-old SMS or MMS.

Being a 3.5G phone, you can access the Internet via 3.5G, 3G, EDGE, or GPRS – subject to network availability. You can also make/receive video calls where there is 3G coverage. The Nokia E71 is capable of handling encrypted G-standard wifi networks.

The call quality on this phone is good enough but my problem is that it fails to detect MTN Ghana’s 3.5G network where there is coverage but my Nokia 5800 detects the same network. The standard earpiece leaves much to be desired and I have since abandoned it. I was able to download and install an Internet radio application on the phone and I listen to Indian melodies by connecting to Indian Internet radio stations through wifi.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic keeps you entertained

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

The 5800 is one of the latest in the Nokia XpressMusic series of multimedia devices. XpressMusic is a brand name for series of Nokia phones that are specifically designed for music playback.

True to form, the Nokia 5800 handles music extremely well. It can play digital audio clips encoded in AAC, AU, M4A, MIDI Tones, MP3, MP4, RealAudio, WAV, and WMA among others. It has graphic equalizer, bass boster and stereo widening. It has in-built stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphones connector. This enables you to connect any headphones of your choice. The default earpiece is abridged and this allows me to occasionally carry the phone in my breast pocket and have the pair of earpieces in my ear lopes without some long cable dangling around my neck. The cable can be extended. The extended version comes with a music controller for playing/pausing as well as forward/rewind buttons.

The wide screen of the phone is used judiciously as video playback is always horizontal. I can switch between wide-screen format and the original dimension of the video. The only drawback is that the in-built RealMedia player is unable to handle popular video formats like WMV, MOV and MPEG. It however plays mobile video formats like MP4 and 3GP. I reckon video format conversion is possible via the Nokia Ovi software but I am yet to try that out.

Equipped with Carl Zeiss lens, the 5800′s camera shines in the area of photography. With a 3.2 mega-pixels capability, I couldn’t ask for more from a mobile device. The photo and video quality are on the high side.

The phone’s massive 8GB Micro SD card (upgradeable to 16GB) gives lots of room for storing audio, video, photos, messages and other files. The phone can even be used as a mass storage device when connected to a computer.

Nokia has demonstrated times without number that it deserves the tag of being the market leader in the area of manufacturing mobile phones. The E71 and 5800 XpressMusic are further proof.

Texting (sending/receiving SMS) has become mainstream in Nigeria.

In June 2005, Mobile Africa published an article in which Mr. Tayo Ajakaye raised issues (and some very valid ones too) about the quality of value added services being provided by GSM network operators (see: Value Added Services: Who Uses Them?

I followed that article with a rejoinder, RE: Value Added Services: Who Uses Them?, in which I faulted Mr. Ajakaiye’s argument, though I agreed with him that quality of service needed (and gasp – still needs) improvement.

Who uses value added services? Let’s look at two popular ones: Mobile Internet and SMS.

Mobile Internet
Let’s take WAP (mobile internet): Opera’s State of the Mobile Web report for 2008 says that Nigeria was the 2nd fastest growing mobile internet community in the period under review (with 1854% growth), and is currently globally number 12 on the mobile internet usage scale.

An incredibly large number of Nigerians must be using value added services. As far back as 2006, the BBC had reported that in July of that year, 61% of its international traffic from mobile devices (a whopping 13.2 million page views in one month alone) was from Nigeria.

SMS
Let’s not go there. The SMS market is so rich today that there’s no point flogging the statistics. TV reality shows run interactive SMS campaigns, businesses and non-profit organisations use SMS notifications to reach their target audiences, and there are already interactive SMS applications deployed for instance in banking, financial, and web hosting services.

An incredibly huge amount of Nigerians have been using value added services for years.

Are these services perfect yet? Dream on. It is a long road ahead, but warts and all, value added services by GSM (and CDMA) operators have made a huge difference in the Nigeria before GSM and Nigeria after GSM.

Mobile value added services are here to stay.

Lagos Island, Nigeria

I had to visit home again after a long time away, in October 2004. I had nothing to worry about. It would be like I was still in my country of residence. Armed with my notebook computer, a VISA debit card, few personal effects, and of course, my good old Nokia 7250i, I set off for Ibadan (south west Nigeria), my beloved home town.

Ghana’s Spacefon Areeba announced on November 15th 2003, west Africa’s first prepaid roaming service. I knew I would use the service sooner than later. I went to thier office at Osu to activate this. Setup was easy. In all, I paid the equivalent of $70. About an hour later, I got a text message: “Dear Subscriber, Your account has been activated. To check the balance of your account PLS dial the balance enquiry number”. I got another message: “Your new balance is 40.00 USD. It is valid until 07-Oct-2005.

I decided to travel to Nigeria by road, to experience how the service would be, crossing from Ghana – Togo – Benin Republic – Nigeria. I travelled by ABC Transport, an executive bus service across west Africa. Whilst in Lome (capital of Togo), my phone was still displaying SPACEFON. This is obviously because Aflao, the border town was just a stone throw away, and Spacefon Areeba has its base stations there. I quickly searched for the available networks. Ghana: GH ONETOUCH, GH SPACE, GH MOBITEL and Togo: Togocell, and one other network. I can’t recollect its name.

We proceeded with the journey. As soon as we moved further from Ghana, my phone soon was displaying Togocell. I smiled. Receiving calls was effortless. The other folks in the bus were surprised that in the middle of nowhere, I could still use my mobile phone. In Benin republic, my phone displayed: BeninCell. I had set my phone on “Automatic network selection”. Consequently, the phone searched for the strongest available network. Since much of the pan-African highway was covered by GSM cellular service, I was in touch, most of the way.

In Benin republic, I decided to call my folks in Nigeria that I was on my way. We soon arrived at the Benin-Nigeria border post. We waited in the bus whilst the bus guide went to process our immigration documents. Soon, I received a text message: ” Y’ello and welcome to Nigeria. For more information on Nigeria, please call 15900 for Directory Services. Do enjoy your stay”. Guess who the sender was? MTN NIGERIA. I chuckled. Needless to say that I selected MTN throughout my short stay in Nigeria. The text message I received was enough reason for me.

We soon drove into Badagry, and towards Lagos mainland. All along the highway, my phone was displaying the names of the base stations as we went by. Names like: Okokomaiko, Badagry-3, readily comes to mind. Well, I’m in Lagos and had to quickly head off for Ibadan, since it was getting late. In Ibadan, same experience. Seamless connectivity.

One great edge I had was, Spacefon Areeba had interconnectivity agreements with three out of the four mobile networks in Nigeria. In a nutshell, I could select VMobile, MTN Nigeria or Glo mobile. Meaning, in places where one network was unavailable, I could easily switch to another network. People on Nigerian networks can’t do this. If you are a VMobile subscriber for example, and you are in a place not covered by VMobile, you were out of touch!

At a glance
I could use any of the three networks: VMobile, Glo mobile, MTN Nigeria.
I could receive text messages sent to my phone number in Ghana.
I could forward all my calls to any phone number in the world. I later bought a Glo mobile prepaid “classic pack” for only N1 and forwarded my calls to the glo line. People in Nigeria could reach me by dialling 0805 224 **** whilst people in Ghana could reach me by simply dialling 024 493 ****. Nothing could be easier.

Downsides
I could not send text messages. I solved this by acqiuring a local mobile line (glo) and forwarded my calls and text messages to it.
Any one trying to reach me within Nigeria would still have to make an International call my dialling my line in Ghana, though I was physically in Nigeria! This is not cost-effective. Same solution. I got a glo mobile line.
I had to pay $2 each time I forwarded my calls to any phone line. I had to do this just once though.

Cost:
Registration: $30
Units: $40
Making calls: $0.50 per 30 seconds
Receiving calls: $0.25 per 30 seconds

In a nutshell, Spacefon Areeba’s HOP service is good if you would be leaving Ghana for a short while. You are only in touch during the life cycle of your credit on SNAP. You are disconnected as soon as your prepaid credit on SNAP expires. On the postpaid package however, you are connected as long as your $1500 deposit as carry you.

I enjoyed the rest of my stay in Nigeria. It was virtually like I never left Ghana, as I was constantly in touch, making and receiving calls as usual.

First Generation of Mobile Telephony (1G)
These basically entails the earliest technology that was deployed with the initial advent of mobile telephony. These include: AMPS and TDMA. 1G was introduced to Africa in the early 1990s and is gradually being phased-out and replaced by 2G technology.

Second Generation of Mobile Telephony (2G)
This was the next phase of development after the 1G mobile technology. Research into the development of 2G technologies started as way back as the early eighties and saw real deployments in 1992. It was developed with the aim of correcting much of the problems that came with the earlier mobile phone systems. It is far more efficient with voice and data transmission and comes with enhanced security. 2G is a digital technology. Mobile networks in Africa mainly deploy well-known systems like GSM (900 / 1800MHz band) and cdmaOne.

Advanced Second Generation Technologies (2.5G)
High data requirements amongst consumers necessitated the improvement of the available technologies. Engineers tried to figure how they could ‘squeeze’ more data (information) through the available mobile network infrastructure. This saw the advent of technologies like GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, CDMA2000. These improved versions of the 2G systems have brought much more improved functionality, possibilities and real-life applications. Most mobile phone networks in Africa, at time of writing, are still on the plain 2G system of GSM and CDMA. Some though are now aggressively migrating to the higher 2.5G platforms and even 3G! Needless to say that much of the rapid developments are witnessed in South Africa, Egypt and to some extent, Nigeria.

Deployment of 2.5G in Africa
The most common of the 2.5G technology deployment in Africa is GPRS. This is more because of its affordability with deployment. More GPRS-enabled handsets are widely available in many of Africa’s fast growing mobile phone market.
South African networks MTN and Vodacom had launched GPRS by 2002. GPRS has long been available on Egypt’s mobile phone networks Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt (Click GSM).
It is currently still being deployed in Nigeria by the mobile phone networks. Nigeria’s glo mobile took the lead by launching Nigeria’s first GPRS network in August 2004 followed by Mtel in April 2005. Kenya’s Safaricomm followed suit in April 2005.
Other networks are quiet about time of deployment.

Third Generation of Mobile Telephony (3G)
This is the latest form of mobile telephony technology that is currently gaining widespread deployment globally, especially in Europe and the Far East. It was designed to provide the best platform for mobile communication and can support features like Video Telephony, High Speed Internet access (burst speed of 384kbps), real-time audio & video broadcast and more.

Deployment of 3G in Africa
This is still a relatively new technology and as such has witnessed very limited real-time deployment in Africa. The earliest entry into this arena was EMTEL, a mobile phone company based in Mauritius. They launched Africa’s first 3G-capable network in November 2004. Following closely is South Africa’s Vodacom which deployed the first 3G network in South Africa in December 2004. MTN South Africa is also gearing up to launch an EDGE-capable network in early 2005, taking the lead from Spacefon Areeba who announced that they would be launching Africa’s first EDGE-capable network as way back as April 2004.

Fourth Generation of Mobile Telephony (4G)
4G promises High-speed mobile wireless access with a very high data transmission speed, of the same order of magnitude as a local area network connection. It is still under-going development and test are only currently running in Japan. It promises much more possibilities and applications and needless to say that this technology is currently not available anywhere in Africa. You can always check back here for developments as they unfold.

Glo mobile

Glo Mobile, the GSM subsidiary of Globacom Nigeria Limited has been a great player in the telecom industry since it was launched in 2003.

First came the rather aggressive adverts on all the available media in the country: TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazine and even the Internet. Nigerians were left to wonder what this new entrant could offer. Glo Mobile made promises, to be Nigeria’s best mobile phone operator, to break the hitherto existing duopoly of VMobile Nigeria (then known as Econet Wireless Nigeria) and MTN Nigeria. The promises looked good. One thing was certain, Glo had the financial stamina to ‘walk the talk’.

Nearly two years later, Glo Mobile has completely change the scenerio of the GSM telecom sub-sector in Nigeria, and the story has never been the same again.

First came the adverts that were all rather indigenous. Glo mobile made use of local Nigerian musicians to drive home the point. Notable amongst the musicians were King Sunny Ade and Daddy Showkey. Moreover, Glo’s flagship colour is limish green; this Nigerians could identify with, since the colour of the country’s flag was Green – White – Green. Moreover, Glo made very colourful posters and bill boards with the inscriptions, “Glo with Pride”, “Lets glo with you” etc.

As events unfolded, it became crystal clear to everyone that Glo mobile was in, for real business. Glo launched Nigeria’s most advanced cellular network, a 2.5G (advanced form of 2nd generation phone network that enables a cellular network to offer GPRS and MMS). GPRS was free for Glo’s subscribers for over a month.

No other cellular network has been able to match the wide variety of Value Added Services offered by Glo. None. Their wide variety of value-added-services include: MultiMedia Messaging Service (Glo MMS), Mobile Internet (via GPRS), Magic Plus (an SMS-based service that gives subscribers access to a host of information, commerce and entertainment content), Ringtones & logos, Txt2Email, Email2Txt, Text Messaging, Personalized Voicemail service, Roaming (for both prepaid & postpaid subscribers).

Other services on the glo mobile network include: Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP), Call Waiting and Call Hold, Call Forwarding, Call Barring, International Roaming and Conference Call.

Glo Mobile’s main objective appears to be “Building the biggest and best network in Africa”. This is on their website. Little wonder. They have since demonstrated this. As at time of writing, Glo mobile’s network has 3.3 million subscribers, and has coverage in 31 states (out of 36) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, making it the only network in Nigeria to have almost covered the entire country in less than two years. The rapid spread has been adjudged as one of the fastest in Africa.

Glo mobile is currently running a promotion which it tagged “Everyone Is an Instant Winner”. In the current promo, Glo Mobile is giving 15% instant bonus credit for every recharge. Based on its monthly recharge volume, the payout on this promo for Glo may be in the region of N500 million monthly.

The present Glo Mobile offering therefore appears to over-shadow that of any other promotion in the country, particularly in the telecommunication industry.

The Instant winner promo also differs from other promotions because every Glo subscriber is a winner.

Glo Mobile emerged with a strong vision to make a difference in the Nigerian mobile sub-telecom sector. They are doing just that. They have changed the industry for the better. The subscribers now have cause to smile.

However, that article gives the impression that the right thing for those operators to do is to ignore value-added services altogether until they are in a better position to make them work right. I may be wrong on that impression, and stand to be corrected, but I am of the opinion that there is a better approach. Permit me to comment on a few things touched in that article, as someone who has used a number of those services regularly for years.

Mr Ajakaye says, During the early stages of its operation in Nigeria, MTN in collaboration with a IT solution provider launched the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The service did not really fly. Not many people could perform the smallest task online, like checking e-mail, through the system. The fault might not be that of the telecom operator.

It just is not true that not many people could use MTN’s WAP and CSD platform. It was (and still is) rather a case of many people not being able to afford to use it. The tariff was (and still is) madness, in my opinion. However, I used it consistently, browsing WAP and managing my office mails at home and on the move. As a matter of fact, MTN’s CSD service is one value-added service that was (and still is) more reliable than the core services of many ISPs in Nigeria that I know of.

Mr Ajakaye further says, What Okoruwa did not include is that the problem might be with the inefficent way these VAS are offered in Nigeria. And after trying one out with money gone and no results found, Nigerian subscribers are learning to restrict themselves to just the basic use of the phone as much as they could.

Inefficient service delivery is not news to Nigerians, and so Value-added services should not be singled out when this is concerned. Many institutions and sectors are inefficient in the delivery of both their core areas of competence and value-added services: banks, insurance companies, ISPs, press and media organisations, religious organisations. It has been a general problem our society needs to address.

For example, when VSAT and other internet access technologies were first introduced to Nigeria, those of us who are in the know can attest to the fact that internet access inefficiently delivered to end-users. Terribly long downtimes were (and in a number of cases, still are) the order of the day. Internet access is not a value-added service for ISPs, who were licensed for that purpose, yet they delivered poorly. We did not condemn internet access in Nigeria to the graveyard because of those experiences. Today, things are slightly better. I submit that service delivery of value-added services will get better with time, with experience, and as competition grows.

Like I mentioned earlier, I have tasted of the bitterness of disappointment from some of these operators, but I must admit that my life and work has had real value added to them because those services exist at all. That’s why I say, Let the show go on.

I liken this issue of value-added services (and all modern services in general) to the relationship called marriage. In the early years, those involved may have to do a lot of shaving off the rough edges of each other, and with some tolerance, balanced confrontation and determination to make things work, the relationship not only lasts but gets better… and better… and better.

Mr Ajakaye wrote, A telecom consultant who spoke with THISDAY on phone Tuesday night said “I cannot immediately think of one that has added value to what service.”

If THISDAY had spoken with me, they would have had a different answer. I have a fast-growing list of a number of people who are able to work better, more efficiently and more conveniently as a result of the value-added services on both GSM and CDMA networks in Nigeria. These crop of people see an opportunity and are taking advantage of it daily. And that, I believe, answers the all-important question that Mr Ajakaye asked, “Who uses them?”

In this saddening in this light to observe that a significant number of GSM operators in Nigeria only pay lip service to customer support. This is more of a problem as we see a shift from plain voice to mobile data. I’ll shed more light on how I arrived at this conclusion.

Scene 1: Kingsley purchases a GPRS-smartphone for use on the GloMobile network. He subscribes for full internet service so he can browse the Web and access emails on his smartphone. But he is told by Customer Care that the only way he can browse the Web is to use his phone as a modem with a laptop! Amused, Kingsley takes his laptop to them as requested, and they were not able to configure it and get it to work with their GPRS service.

Scene 2: Yomi has signed up for full internet access via GPRS on the same network. He has put in all settings, yet the service does not work. From the error message his Sony Ericsson P800 is giving (Service not activated), it is clear that GloMobile is yet to do something at their end. After weeks of calling customer care, he is finally asked to come over to their office half-way across the city of Lagos from his location.

Insisting that the trip was not necessary to resolve the issue, he is told that was the only thing to do. Yomi drives down, and after customer care has taken a look at the settings on his phone, they comment that everything was in order and then take a look at their systems. They discover that they had not activated the poor fellow’s line on the “switch”. Another unnecessary and wasteful trip.

Yomi soon upgrades his handset to the Nokia 9500, which is in effect a laptop that fits into your palm. Speaking with Customer care once, he is asked what laptop he uses. He replies that he just uses his Communicator to browse, manage email, and run Instant messaging, and is shocked when the representative on the line responds in amazement how that was possible.

Scene 3: A young lady takes a handset to the nearest MTN Friendship Centre to have it configured for WAP. She is told that the server was down and so the handset could not be configured. In less than an hour she narrates the story to a friend, who promptly takes the handset, inputs the settings and starts browsing with it. Whether or not the server was actually down had nothing to do with configuring WAP on a phone, and Custmer Care did not know that.

Scene 4: Wale calls Customer Care on Vmobile to enquire whether it was true that the network now had a GPRS service. The representative replies in the affirmative and proceeds to tell Wale to send a specified text to a dedicated number to receive the service configuration OTA (Over-the-air). Wale sends the text and is surprised to discover that the settings sent to him are for plain old Circuit-switched data, a slow dial-up protocol. Till the time of writing this article, Vmobile is yet to launch GPRS on its network.

Scene 5: DK purchases one of the newer Sendo phones for use on GloMobile. Customer Care informs him that the handset cannot work on its network (we have been wondering why, since it was not locked to another network and was both WAP and GPRS-enabled). DK visits http://www.gosmartmobile.com where he finds WAP settings for his network. He puts in the settings, makes some adjustments on my recommendation – and months after he is still browsing.

Okay. Enough examples. All scenarios above are real events. I made none up. Of course, there are more, but what’s the use going on and on?

The question on my mind is, How much training do Customer Care representatives get? Did these guys apply for those jobs just to put some money in their pockets every month or do they really have an interest in what they do?

I may not have the answers straight up, but I do know that what we observe in subscribers’ interaction with Customer Care officers on our networks leaves much to be desired. These operators should stop caring about us in word alone. They may need to cut down on those ad budgets and put more funds in ensuring that the customer gets the kind of support he deserves.

Value-added services are those service outside the core services provided by service providers. Just as the name implies, a value-added service is supposed to add value to the subscribers’ use of an operator’s network. These services have unique characteristics and they relate to other services in a completely different way. They also provide benefits that core services can not.

But accordidng to Mr. Calixthus Okoruwa, the CEO XLR8, who organised a VAS expo, e-NNOVATE early this year, value added services are now generically defined to refer to all other uses to which technological gadgets can be put, outside of the use for which they were primarily designed. He said the mobile phone is the prime example here as it was primarily designed for voice communication. If it now enables a user to link up with his e-mail or enables him to conduct banking transactions even while on the move, then of course these are certainly value added services.

Value-added services continue to be developed by the day. The more popular ones include call holding, call waiting, call barring, call divert, voice mail, SMS, fax messaging, Calling Line Identification, call conferencing, cell information, and all those services involved in mobile VAS. These include non-voice advanced messaging services such as SMS, MMS, Mobile Instant Messaging, and Unified Messaging. There are also wireless data such as GPRS, WAP, mobile gaming and Push To Talk.

Some characteristics of a VAS which experts have mentioned include that it is not a form of basic service but rather adds value total service offering. It could stand alone in terms of profitability and where properly offered, it could stimulates incremental demand for core service. A value-added service could stand alone operationally. It does not cannibalize basic service unless clearly favourable. It can be an add-on to basic service, and as such, may be sold at a premium price, and it may provide operational and/or administrative synergy between or among other services.

Basically, experts point to two types of VAS. The first service type are those value-added services that stand alone from the core service of the operator. These are often provided as an optional service along with voice services, although they could be offered and used by themselves without the voice service. A good exapmle of this is the SMS.

The licencing authority in many cases licence the operator to provide the basic voice services. The operator adds such other services that may attract subscribers to his network.

During the early stages of its operation in Nigeria, MTN in collaboration with a IT solution provider launched the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The service did not really fly. Not many people could perform the smallest task online, like checking e-mail, through the system. The fault might not be that of the telecom operator.

In recent times, virtually all the operators in the Nigerian telecom industry has come to town with one value-added service or the other. The GSM operators had been introducing one value-added service after the other. The competition, observers have noted, is in the launching the services, not in effectiveness. For example, one of the operators who offer GPRS could keep a subscriber waiting for more than 30 days before he is connected. After the acknowledgment by the network that your request had been received and was been processed, the operator goes to sleep till the following month. Yet before you could finish pronoucing GPRS, the same operator could come out launching another value-added service.

The PTOs are not left behind in this craze to launch value-added service. Many PTOs have launched Internet service, but subscribers cannot point to more than two that are working well. How many of those are working well? Some of them promised SMS, but they could only send that within their individual networks.

Although there was the culture of promise without delivery by operators, Okoruwa believes that “this area is a potentially exciting aspect of the technology industry – not just telecoms, but the entire technology industry – which operators are currently only just scratching. I say it promises to be very exciting because of its immense potential to add real value to the lives of consumers and in so doing, in helping to create new revenue streams for technology players – telecom companies, but also content providers, web developers, banks and financial institutions, sundry retailers and service companies and entrepreneurs of different hues.”

What’s more Okoruwa says, is that that for a country like Nigeria, an additional benefit would be that value added services in a very subtle yet potent manner, encourage Nigerians to embrace technology in their every day lives. Children who have had to enroll for WAEC or JAMB online or check their results in the same manner, come back home to regal their parents and older ones of tales of the new fangled technology.

Admitting that Nigerians might not be utilising these services to the utmost as yet, Okoruwa says the reason is that voice telephony is the primary driver telecommunications and after a prolonged scarcity of basic telephone amenities with attendant huge unmet need for telecoms, telecom companies have understandably and to resounded commercial success, focused attention on voice.Also, voice has also been the predominant concern of the consumers.

What Okoruwa did not include is that the problem might be with the inefficent way these VAS are offered in Nigeria. And after trying one out with money gone and no results found, Nigerian subscribers are learning to restrict themselves to just the basic use of the phone as much as they could. Many subscribers have had their money deducted for SMS that was not delivered. If this could happen to simple SMS, they wonder what would happen to GPRS and other high-sounding service.

It would seem the NCC has no standard on the quality of these value-added services. The regulator did not licence them to offer anything than basic voice telephony. So, it would be difficult to start grading them for a service your licence did not require them to provide. At the last published report on network quality in Nigeria, NCC concentrated just on the voice aspect. Which is just as well, analysts argue, because for an operator finding it difficult to provide quality voice service, adding several value-added services is an unnecssary distraction.

A telecom consultant who spoke with THISDAY on phone Tuesday night said “I cannot immediately think of one that has added value to what service.” It is a view shared by most subscribers, all the noise aside.

I will not be comparing WAP services here, as they are pretty limited in use to the business person, but full data services giving you access to the Web, email and FTP etc.

Getting Started
On MTN, you only need pay a one-time fee of N1,500 to be signed up for Enhanced Data and Fax. This is whether you are on prepay or a contract. It makes no difference.

With Glo, you have to be a contract user to get access to full internet access. Minimum initial expenditure: N9,750, plus all the hassles of a contract.

Tariffs
Glo GPRS is charged by the byte (20kobo to 35 kobo per kilobyte) rather than per time, making it generally more cost-effective than MTN’s per second or per minute browsing charges (same as regular call rates). But again on MTN, there are at least 3 BoosterCard options available to help you lower your browsing costs.

Speed Issues
MTN runs a CSD platform with speeds limited to 9.6kbps. In practice it works well for retrieving and sending mails and viewing low-bandwidth sites.

Glo touts its GPRS speed at 40kbps. In reality it is much slower – barely faster than a normal CSD connection, and many times just totally unuseable.

Service Availability and Quality
From the experience I have had on both platforms, MTN Enhanced Data/Fax is available everywhere I have been. It does not matter where I am in Lagos, I am able to browse. Last year, I took a trip to and from Warri and it worked flawlessly all through – on the road and at my destination.

The same cannot be said for Glo GPRS however. Even within Lagos, there are very few locations GPRS works. For example, a drive between Ojodu and Surulere is a shocking revelation. The GPRS signal is there, but more often than not it does not work. I won’t even think of attempting a trip to Warri.

Extras
Glo GPRS allows you to send and receive Multi-media messages – a souped-up version of SMS that includes audio, video, and animations. On the other hand, MTN Data/Fax gives you fax and data access. You get 2 extra numbers – one for fax and the other for data. Hence, if you use a Communicator like I do, you do not need a fax machine, as the communicator series have it built-in.

Conclusion
Let’s face it, besides the more convenient tariffs on Glo GPRS when and where it works, there is very little difference in what you get from the two networks. In addition, MTN gives you fax alongside Web and email access.

But if my life were to depend on it, I’d choose MTN’s Enhanced Data/Fax. A little more expensive, but it wins by a clear margin when it comes to reliability and availability.

Mobile Mania
Mobile telephony is now firmly entrenched as the predominant mode of telephony in almost every African nation. By 2001 mobile subscriber numbers had increased at such a rate that they had overtaken those of fixed lines, making Africa the first region of the world to achieve this. By the end of 2003, mobile users are estimated to have reached 51 millions, according to ITU, and are forecast to grow to 67 millions by the end of 2005. In just the first few years of the new millennium, Africa has added more telecommunication users than in the whole of the previous century. Africa is currently the world region with the highest level of mobile communications growth. The vast majority of mobile users use GSM technologies.

Evolving A Uniquely African Approach
The business and operating climate in the African telecommunication sector has radically shifted. Firstly, market liberalization has helped shape an environment which fosters competition. Regulatory bodies are being established, to oversee the introduction of services, resolve disputes, and support competition. A glance across Africa’s mobile landscape illustrates the benefits of competition. The only countries with less mobile than fixed telephone subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2003 were either those without mobile networks or without mobile competition. Mobile competition has benefited even the poorest countries. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia both have per capita incomes of around US$100, yet the Democratic Republic of Congo has a mobile penetration of around 2% – some 15 times greater than Ethiopia’s, which stood at 0.13% at the end of 2003.The difference? Whilst Ethiopia has only 1 GSM operator, the Democratic Republic of Congo has 3 GSM networks, in addition to non GSM cellular networks.

Pan Regional Giants
Competition alone is not the key. The emergence over the last 3-4 years of African based, pan-regional mobile operators, is another significant reason behind mobile’s growth. The spheres of mobile influence of these strategic investors now reach across the continent. It is these operators, such as Vodacom, Orascom Telecom and MTN who have been able to apply uniquely African approaches onto the markets on which they operate. They also provide competition – not just any competition, but their presence ensures that competition is of a suitable quality to help stimulate market growth. “Operators such as MTN or Vodacom have the knowledge of operating in different African markets which they can then duplicate onto other markets in the region,” explains Michael Minges, Head of ITU’s Market, Economics and Finance Unit and lead author of the 2004 African Telecommunications Indicators report. “But crucially they also possess a vital zeal to spread the benefits of mobile communications across the region, and with this enthusiasm they have helped created a mobile revolution in Africa.”

As Africa’s telecoms investment climate has shifted, in turn, potential investors in the region are becoming more willing to make concessions which they would not have done 10 years ago. Vendors, looking to grow in new markets as they face saturation elsewhere, are increasingly tailoring their approach to the region, developing special lower-cost solutions to suit the needs of the region.

Harnessing Approaches that Work
Mobile operators in Africa have been quick to see the benefits of prepaid services. In a region where per-capita incomes are low, and payment upfront in cash is generally the preferred means of payment, prepaid services are ideally suited. They reduce the risk of bad credit to operators while exposing a whole new consumer group to telecommunications services; those who would not normally have qualified for postpaid mobile services or fixed lines. A growing number of African networks operate only as prepaid, and four out of every five African subscribers – almost twice the global average – use prepaid services. Prepaid services have been further adapted to offer mobile ‘payphone’ services. It is tapping into these regional specific approaches, and accessing new sectors of the population who have not previously been exposed to telecommunications, which have helped to drive up mobile usage in recent years, and will continue to do so.

How Far do Mobile’s Benefits Really Extend?
Despite its suitability for the African market, how far has mobile really gone in terms of extending the benefits of telecommunications? Levels of mobile penetration vary considerably across the region, ranging from under 1% in Ethiopia to 74.7% in Réunion at the end of 2003, indicating that, for much of the region there is still huge scope for growth. Mobile technology has, however, gone further than any other communications technology in Africa in terms of bridging the digital divide. Mobile’s ease of payment means that services extend to segments of urban and rural populations who previously would not have been able to afford them, and where demand is high. Mobile infrastructure also extends way beyond that of fixed-line, into rural and ‘universal access’ markets, something to which wireless technology is innately more suited than the traditional fixed-line. Nevertheless, network coverage remains low with only an estimated 50% of Sub-Saharan Africa covered by a mobile signal, indicating that there is still a large untapped market, provided operators can be encouraged to extend network coverage.

Boosting Local Jobs
Mobile technology has also spawned a number of new employment possibilities. Prepaid card sellers or mobile resellers, such as Nigeria’s ‘umbrella people’ so called as they use umbrellas to provide shade whilst plying their wares – are now commonplace. Mobile reselling is a boom business – umbrella people, for example, have reportedly been able to exhaust 2-3 MTN prepaid cards, each valued at roughly USD11.60, per day.

Affordability of service is still a key issue – if services are unaffordable for potential new users, then this sector of the market cannot offer prospects for expansion. After a period of rapid mobile uptake, the mobile growth curve is set to continue. ITU forecasts mobile subscriber growth of 17% during 2004. To maintain the momentum of growth however, operators – as elsewhere in the world – will need to look to new areas of growth to attract new users.

Tapping into New Growth Streams Data
Applications such as WAP are beginning to surface. One of the most publicized examples is of Senegal’s Manoni, which launched a service to enable farmers to query databases on pricing information, utilizing WAP. The service is used by over 1 000 users.

Meanwhile, SMS (short message service) usage is showing signs of a fast uptake in Africa. While the majority of SMS traffic tends to be for mundane communications, SMS has also been harnessed for a number of innovative, region-specific applications. In Zambia, mobile operator Celtel has launched a mobile payment system whereby users can make payments using SMS, with a code identifying the payee.

Applications such as mobile banking have the potential to make a major impact in Africa, a region where cash payments are preferred and where people do not generally carry credit cards.

Migration to 3G?
A lack of fixed-line infrastructure as well as low PC penetration means that the potential for mobile Internet is considerable. Indeed 3G services have already been launched in a number of African countries, including Angola. Although there are no 3G networks in operation on the continent, network upgrades have enabled service launches. Recently Ericsson was awarded Africa’s first EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution) contract, to provide the technology to Ghana’s Scancom. Deploying EDGE will provide a migration path toward 3G, and enable Scancom to assess demand for enhanced data services. High speed or not, mobiles can still allow users to access the Internet “We are seeing users using regular GSM networks to gain access to the Internet, ” says Minges “It is certainly slow, but in areas where no alternative exists it is the only way to gain Internet access.” Given this, a logical technology to deploy would be GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), which could provide a higher speed access solution. Yet operators have still to embark on a large-scale rollout of the technology – by the end of 2003 GPRS had only been launched in three African markets. “Operators should be exploiting the potential of GPRS ” explains Minges “Given the obvious thirst for Internet access, GPRS could provide users with Internet access at speeds equivalent to dial up access as well as new revenue streams for operators.”

Universal Service Market
The Universal service market offers some surprisingly vibrant growth opportunities. Cautious of extending the reach of mobile services into rural areas, where service uptake may not be as rapid as in urban areas, operators have been slow in seizing the prospects these markets offer. “Operators should see these markets as a growth opportunity” says Minges. “Providing a service such as a community payphone can generate over 3 times the monthly revenue of a conventional user.” While services such as community payphones clearly do not provide a boost for handset sales, they do mean that levels of mobile traffic are kept high. Mobile initiatives in the universal services area include the Grameen Phone initiative. This initiative replicates the Grameen Telecom’s village phone programme running in Bangladesh, which currently has over 40 000 village phone operators. The Grameen initiative in Uganda operates in partnership with MTN Uganda and provides low cost mobile services into poor rural areas.

The Death of the Fixed-line?
Providing that operators maintain a focus on service affordability, as well as looking to new growth areas, the future for mobile looks very positive. But what of fixed-line growth, which has been almost static beside the burgeoning mobile market? Total numbers of fixed lines are forecast to reach 30 millions by the end of 2005, according to ITU. Although by this point the number of fixed lines will be dwarfed by mobile, fixed-line growth will nevertheless have been steady, increasing by around 6-10% each year. The key to fixed-line’s growth lies with wireless technologies, and it is only through these technologies that fixed-line can ‘fight back’. Offering fixed-line services over fixed wireless access (FWA) networks offers all the advantages of mobile – they are cheaper to install than conventional copper wire networks – but are also attractive in their ability to provide high data speeds. It is this ability to provide broadband which needs to be exploited, to leverage the one advantage fixed-line services has over mobile.

Fitting the Market’s Needs
Fixed-line services will also need to be adapted to meet the needs of the market, paying attention to areas which have helped mobile grow – in particular the ability to prepay for calls. The suitability of FWA networks means that they are already being deployed in certain countries in Africa. In Nigeria, for example, by mid 2003, new fixed wireless networks accounted for some 30% of all fixed lines. If the Nigerian experience can be duplicated across other countries, and fixed wireless technologies can be harnessed to revamp traditional fixed-line services, then there may still be hope for Africa’s fixed-line market.

Wireless Way Forward …
Fixed, Mobile or Internet, Africa’s ICT future is definitely a wireless one. In the absence of fixed-line networks, in addition to a lack of PCs, Mobile phones are likely to becoming increasingly used as means to access the internet, and in the immediate future it is mobile technologies such as GPRS combined with wireless technologies such as WiFi, which are likely to drive the mobile Internet market. With a number of the region’s mobile networks ready for GPRS, it is only a matter of time until operators keen to address stagnant levels of ARPU (Average Revenue per User) – begin to push GPRS as a means of accessing the Internet.

Fixed-line operators must also look to wireless options to diversify and extend their service range. As well as voice services, fixed wireless technology will also allow operators to offer highspeed broadband Internet access, and this could well prove to be the one antidote to declining fixed revenues.

Vested Interests in Africa’s Mobile Future
The stakeholders in Africa’s mobile industry will each have their own roles to play in shaping the future mobile market. Regulators and policy makers can act decisively to ensure that competition friendly policies are encouraged, such as keeping license fees to a minimum, and that any lack of transparencies in the business climate are addressed. Regulators should step in to make the prospect of rural expansion a more attractive one to operators, such as by including – and enforcing – higher rollout obligations for new market entrants, or by providing incentives such as lowering of asymmetric interconnect rates to entice existing players further into areas which previously had no network coverage. Operators themselves should be encouraged to share infrastructure where possible to keep their costs down and encourage competition.

Manufacturers must continue finding methods to keep infrastructure costs as low as possible, as well as tailoring their approach to address the needs of the region – such as looking at tailoring solutions to low ARPU users. Vendor financing agreements, with the backing of governments and investment bodies will also encourage manufacturers to provide network enhancement and expansion.

With around 51m mobile subscribers in a market of 800m, Africa offers tremendous growth potential, and by continuing to deploy and adapt an approach which fits the needs of the market, then the mobile growth curve looks set to continue.

by ITU Africa

A mobile user in Ghana

What can be described as the GSM evolution in Ghana, started essentially as way back as November 1996 with the launch of the first GSM service by Scancom Limited under the brand name of Spacefon, now known as Spacefon Areeba.

It would be important to start this piece by enlightening the reader a bit about the major players in Ghana’s GSM scenario.

MOBITEL

Mobitel, (a service of Milicom Ghana Limited) held sway in Ghana as the premier mobile phone service. It operated an analogue network that was very popular amongst the rich and elite in the society. It was more or less a show of class to own a ‘mobitel’. The brand awareness was so intense that till date, many people still refer to any mobile phone as ‘mobitel’. This was in the early 90′s.

SPACEFON AREEBA

In came Spacefon, with its post-paid package for Ghana’s first GSM service in November 1996 and the rest as they say is history. First was the thrill that came with the new service’s Caller ID (Note that Caller ID is an integral feature of GSM). Spacefon’s service gained more and more popularity by the day. New features like Call Forwarding, Call Holding, International Roaming, Short Messaging Service (SMS) was soon made available to the increasing number of subscribers.

In 1998, Spacefon launched its prepaid service and christened it SNAP. It came with many of the features of a digital mobile phone service, with the convenience of being prepaid. It became more popular, especially amongst the youth population.

ONETOUCH GSM

In the year 2000, Ghana Telecom introduced its GSM service, tagged OneTouch GSM. It however failed to make the necessary impact simply because its starter packs were not readily available. The few in circulation were hoarded and sold as high as 1 million cedis (about $110). Despite the scarcity of OneTouch GSM’s SIM packs, it was still much in demand because it was very easy to connect to OneTouch Lines than any other network and also, it became a ‘status symbol’ since it was only available to the rich, and high-ranking government officials. At this time, it was a big deal to have your mobile phone number start with a ‘020′. (020 is the network access code for subscribers on OneTouch GSM).

Note that at this time, OneTouch GSM’s subscribers were unable access any value added service like SMS, VoiceMail, Call Holding/Forwarding. It was plain voice calls.

My opinion is that the coming of GSM mobile technology to our shores about 3 years ago opened up a new vista that can help bridge that chasm significantly and speedily.

The American Model
Mobile data is not a big hit in the US because most business premises and homes are already wired or connected wirelessly.

The Japanese Model
The Japanese model is definitely something we can learn a few lessons from. The Japanese – adults or kids – are probably the most connected set of people on this planet. And this is because of data via mobile phones. As a matter of fact, the Japanese mobile industry is driven not so much by voice traffic as by data on CDMA, i-Mode and 3G platforms especially. People access their mails, make online payments and access a wide range of information via mobile phone data services.

Which Way Nigeria?
Here in Nigeria, our environment and present circumstances are just right for mobile data to be a big hit. Very few homes around the country have any form of Internet access. Even scarier is the fact that most business offices have no form of internet access as well.

The cost of acquiring a PC and subscribing for internet access alone is so unthinkable for the vast majority of people and businesses that it is clear that is not the way to go if we are serious about catching up with the rest of the world in cyberspace. Add to that the pathetic fact that one would also need to purchase and maintain a power generating set to be able to put one’s PC and internet connection to any productive use, and that case is lost.

Enter GSM Data
The average mobile phone on the market is either CSD-enabled or GPRS-enabled or both. Every network on ground in the country provides at least WAP access, and in other cases full internet access. In my opinion, most people with a mobile phone are walking around with the world in their pockets. All they need do is harness the potentials of their devices and network services.

Networks & Pricing
It is clear that the mobile networks need to work out subsidized tariffs for data calls (in the case of CSD) and connections (for GPRS). This will encourage the average Joe to put those data facilities to regular use.

Current trends show that at least 2 networks in Nigeria are driving GPRS-based data to be taken up my a huge chunk of their subscribers. A 3rd network appears to intend to limit GPRS services to “premium” customers, an action that will be tantamount to shooting themselves in the foot, if I may say so.

Possiblities
It is amazing what information is available on such a simple basic platform as WAP. Subscribers can do Google and Yahoo! searches, access and respond to mails, check currency exchange rates, stocks quotes, update themselves on news from around the world, and join worldwide discussion forums. In particular, these forums are veritable learning centres where we can tap into free and useful information that drive today’s world. As a network administrator, I even found a WAP site from which I could ping my clients’ hosting accounts to ensure they are running fine, and a couple of others from which I can run domain name searches! Even WAP is no longer as basic as it used to be.

With the advent of full websites that can now be accessed via WAP, the limits on WAP are fast fading (visit www.mobilitynigeria.com on your WAP 2.0/XHTML mobile phone to comprehend this). Of course, there are more and more phones being released with full Web browsers, further expanding the horizons of mobile data.

Conclusion
It is my submission that our country needs to take a serious look at how we can harness the power of mobile data in moving forward. In particular there is an urgent need for mass enlightenment of our population in this matter. Maybe, just maybe then we will truly be using what we have to get what we want.