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...