Nigerian Times

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria on BlackBerry mobile phone, the most popular smart phone in the most populous country in Africa with over 90 million users of GSM phones. . 10 Years of GSM in Nigeria • The Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) was introduced into Nigeria in August 2001 with only 400, 000 lines, and a dismal 0.4 teledensity. But today the active lines are over 90 million with a teledensity of 64.16! • Nigeria is ranked as the largest and fastest growing telecom market in Africa and among the top ten fastest growing telecom markets in the world. • The leading GSM operators in Nigeria are, MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom, Starcomms, Mtel, Visafone, Zoommobile, Multilinks MTN Kiosk • The Nigerian telecom industry has attracted over $18 billion in private sector investments, including direct foreign investment, contributing over N300 billion to the coffers of the Nigerian government through frequency spectrum sales and the annual revenue from mobile services i...

Mobile Communication: Umuodagu Ntu and excruciating poor network ~ By Nwaorgu Faustinus The advent of Mobile telecommunication industry in Nigeria is traceable to 1999 and present democratic government. Prior to 1999, telephone be it landline or walkie-talkie was seen as one of the rare luxuries of the rich. But the coming of mobile telecommunication operators changed the situation for the better as every Tom, Dick and Harry have accesses to one or two handsets. That is why its arrival and operation was seen as a great achievement of the former President of Nigeria, Chief. Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. Initially, MTN, the first mobile telecommunication company was given license to operate followed by ECONET which metamorphosed into Vmobile first, then Zain and now Airtel. The last mobile telephony network but not the least is Etisalat. Apart from these four major telephony networks, there are also others that are regionally based. Though the impacts of these four major mobile net...

29 May 2008 09:00 Africa/Lagos Africa's Mobile Industry to Pay $71 Billion in Tax By 2012 JOHANNESBURG, May 29/PRNewswire/ -- - GSMA Says Cutting Mobile-Specific Taxes Would Boost Government Revenue The mobile industry will generate $71 billion in tax revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2012, but that figure would be higher still if governments removed taxes that treat mobile phones and services as luxury goods, according to research commissioned by the GSMA. The research by Frontier Economics found that uptake of mobile services in the region is being held back by mobile-specific taxes on handsets, airtime and telecom equipment, which increase costs for consumers and deter investment by mobile operators. If all mobile specific-taxes in Sub-Saharan Africa had been removed in 2007, an additional 43 million people in the region would be connected by 2012 leading to an increase in overall tax receipts of $930 million between 2007 and 2012, according to the research....

28 Apr 2008 08:00 Africa/Lagos MTN Nigeria to Improve Performance With Motorola Optimization Services Contract Three-year agreement expected to reduce network operating costs and increase competitiveness LAGOS, Nigeria, April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. ( NYSE:MOT ) today announced a three-year network optimization service contract with MTN Nigeria, to improve the performance of the operator's multi-vendor network across its serving area. The multi-million dollar contract is the first between the two companies, and covers the ongoing enhancement of the African operator's cellular network. It will enable MTN Nigeria to continue to deliver high quality service to its growing number of subscribers and satisfy their increasing demands for new value-added services. Motorola's optimization services utilize market-leading analytical tools and actual end-user subscriber data, providing an innovative and proven alternative to traditional optimization methods. The ser...