Mobile network providers services in Nigeria are improving on daily basis. Once upon a time in Nigeria, there was only one competitor in the Telecommunication Industry in Nigeria – Nigeria Telecommunication (NITEL). It expanded to many parts of the country through corruption and maintained it’s operation on corruption over the years just like any other government owned institution in Nigeria. The reason being that, it was only competing against itself – there was no rival. The tide turned in 2001, when the federal government started issuing licenses to mobile telecom operators, that’s when the competition started.

Every Nigerian sighed of relieve. The death of telephone monopoly was celebrated through massive subscription, even though it was expensive, it offered us a better option. The long run saw many more operators increasing the competition. Subscribers could only hope for more better days that are taking so long to come.

Matters Arising

Mobile phone operation in Nigeria started with “Get them all” orientation. So  it has been nothing more than making much money with poor facilities to the detriment of  subscribers. One complain today another tomorrow.

•  Extortion – charging people for services they didn’t use

• Poor reception – you could hardly reach or hear someone on the other side of the telephone

• Product Imposition – forcing products on subscribers e,g caller-tunes

• Poor customer care – sometimes you spend more than 2 hours trying to reach your network provider

• Poor internet connection – frustration is always the case when browsing the internet using any of these mobile networks

These are just among the issues constituting Telephone culture in Nigeria. The chance to put these issues to rest hangs on Nigeria communication commission (NCC) that has taken on fines as a measure to enforce good telephone services on network providers.

I could remember, on February, 2013, NCC fined Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN N22 million for breach of protocols. As if that’s not enough, additional N1.4 billion was imposed on them for poor services. It did not end  there, a few weeks later, NCC told the public that it has imposed on Airtel, Globacom and MTN a total of N647.5 million fine. This is the kind of penalty they (network providers) accumulate quarterly for the kind of services they provide for Nigerian subscribers.

Who Is The Best?

The Telecom Award 2014 saw many Telephone network providers winning big-

Airtel won the “Most Customer Friendly Network” Award while the chairman Segun Ogunsanya went home with the individual award – Telecom CEO of the Year.

Etisalat won two awards: “Best Brand Campaign” and “Youth Empowerment Operator of the year,” and the chairman, Hakeem Bello Osagie won Telecom Entrepreneur Award.

Globacom won three Awards: “Best Telecom company of the year – Data,” “Most Innovative Telecom Operator of the year” and “Best Submarine Company of the Year.” The chairman Mike Adenuga’s impact on Nigeria’s Telecom system was appreciated with the “Telecom Investor of the Decade” Award.

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I waited for anyone to pick up an Award said to be “Best Network Operator of the Year” but there was nothing like that. I started to ask the “why” question, and I found the answer in the fact that average Nigerian mobile network subscriber has multiple Sims. The reason being that one could not be relied on, therefore, the best way to contain the lapses is to have as many different lines as possible. So that when one is giving you a problem, you can switch to the other.

Consequently, the question- “Who is the best Mobile network provider in Nigeria?” is still a Multimillion dollar one. Since the operators are not judged based on the quality of service they render to their subscribers, but based on the amount of subscribers they’ve got. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as “the Best Mobile Operator” for now.