As we work for the networks…..
The troubles with our own GSM system when it had docked at our own shores after receiving a warm welcome which later turned spurious was its rigidity in being affordable, it was far from it. It still maintained its stripe of affluence and was only immediately available to the rich and the rich wanna bes’. […]
The troubles with our own GSM system when it had docked at our own shores after receiving a warm welcome which later turned spurious was its rigidity in being affordable, it was far from it. It still maintained its stripe of affluence and was only immediately available to the rich and the rich wanna bes’. The sight of opulent persons and the like, flashing their handsets and talking madness alone was the gig at the time. Slowly, God willing, even the poor but famous could manage one or two. God willing I say because the trend of the market before offering affordability never betrayed the fact that the networks stiffled the process of lowering down the cost of calls as they enjoyed the high tariffs. The CDMA (code division multiple access, a slightly different technology from the GSM but of the same purpose) e.g networks such as multilinks also participated in this growth in IT.
Fast, in a cheetah like speed was the proliferation of internet services as well as intranet for communications within firms and networks. Dissemination of information was transformed, as it transcends the rather stationary non dynamic technologies, with mobile and flexible equipment that exhibited supersonic speeds that picked and dropped signals rapidly through improved media. Simultaneously as we were just retiring from an ovation of the performance, then came the attendant stage accidents as we saw the system loose its invincibility as we were inundated with faults, errors, inefficiencies and incapacity from our service providers.
While the global village was relishing the per second billing, we were ensnared with the per minute billing for quite some time, until supposedly, when our own technology evolved to join the rest of the world with the per second billing system. Then came an avalanche of packages or bouquets for different users with various payment and billing plans to ease the effects of the high tariffs. These again were already prevalent in the developed technology world, while we had to wait for to unfold in our market. We paid as much as 50 to 60 naira for a minute as a SIM Starter pack also sold for about N20,000 and above. As of today, the cost of GSM and CDMA calls has reduced drastically, unfortunately not drastically enough because as we compare the rates of mobile operators abroad, we are paying handsomely to speak to our loved ones.
We suffer in excruciating pains of being unable to make smooth calls while paying for them. We pay for the latency we experience when our calls get through at first and we cannot seem to clearly hear or respond to the other party. Within the call too, we loose ampul amounts of seconds which we pay for. Pooling these together, we end up paying a lump sum without optimum utilisation of the calls. Further pooling such calls of millions of Nigerians amounts to vast sums of money. Would this high cost be attributed to the cost of doing business in Nigeria? Surely a balance of the costs in business and the bills would still have the salient feature of we the consumers weighed down by excessive costs. Their profits are outrageous.
The 3G, GPRS etc modes (which are enhanced modes for efficient communication with calls and internet) as we are soon to realise are only more effcient in the commercial centre of Lagos and the capital city of Abuja. As soon as you leave the vicinity of these locations, you are spellbound to an annoying millipede speed of data exchange. This is aside the usual breakdown in networks where for days, your services fail you. You cannot make calls, you cannot upload credit, neither can you check your balances. As soon as you leave Abuja for Bauchi, it takes hours for 1 BB (blackberry) message to deliver.
Customer care centres are few and far between. They are too few compared to the customer volume and hence the consumer dares not have a network problem, else he spends a few days in queues trying to resolve the complications on his phone’s network.
As we continue to work for the networks, yes, absolutely, we shall continue to languish in these inconveniences as we are stripped of our credits even as the call hardly passes as a call. We felt that with the coming of communications minister, Dora Akunyili, we would witness a precursor to an efficient mobile system without the attendant penance of owning a mobile phone. That she would extend the NAFDAC formula so to speak and considerably ease the users problems. This private sector is no doubt in need of a little intervention from the Government else we continue to wallow in this plight. As we are faced with the SIM registration matter, we are bounced back and forth between the Communications regulators who are supposed to be our watch dogs in the industry and the mobile operators who obviously are foxing the lame watch dog.
Tahir Ibrahim Tahir wrote this piece from Lagos