Internet service providers face lots of challenges - GiCell CEO

Anthony Nwakaegho/DigitalSENSE Business News

Internet service providers are facing lots of challenges in Nigeria, which have impacted negatively on creating access for the end users.

The Chief Executive Officer, Gicell, Mr Usman Gumi made this observation at the just concluded NigeriaCom 2013 in Lagos, while dwelling on ”Service and Profitability in the data era.”

He said that some of the challenges his company, for instance, is facing in the delivery of internet services stem from the fact that his company has not been able to operate nationwide due to the restriction on spectrum in the country, and that the unavailability of mobile devices for the Code-Division Multiple Access(CDMA) like Black berry and Iphone.

“We reached out to NCC that there should be training for the cyber café owners and the users. It is not enough to give them data services and they don’t know how to use them. So, we need to go down to the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to be able to get it right,” he said

He explained that the country is in data transit because the data here are not mostly hosted in the country, stressing that the moment most data are hosted locally, the country would begin to generate more revenue.

The CEO, Gicell said that Mexico has satellite service that provides data that comes from the soap opera and that the model which is publicly a push project was not pushed by the operators but by the government of Mexico.

The General Manager VAS Marketing Airtel Nigeria, Mr Victor Bannerman that Airtel the telecom sector is not reaching the market the way it should in terms of access, and said that there need to be a lot of engagement on the part of the government in order to get more access.

DigitalSENSE Business News gathered from Bannerman that if the price of phone drops, more people will get on to the internet, and said that”with the level of illiteracy the people do not know what they put in the data. We need enlightenment to make sure that data become more viable to the economy.”

“We are expanding our engagement with the police as they are interested in space. To get something in the nation takes a lot. Government is showing greater commitment in data delivery, but we have to find out what will work well in an entrepreneurial market that is well driven,” he said.

On his part, the General Manager, Business Intelligence, MTN, Mr Bayo Adekannmbi told DigitalSENSE Business News that as long as literacy bench mark is used to develop the market there is bound to be a problem because the illiterate people who use App and get what they want.

“We are seeing Websites being done in Pidgin English now. We don’t see a telephony approach, but to create a partnership like using the MTN goodie bag to have unlimited access to social network and to partner with content providers to provide more,” Adekannmbi said.

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