Are ISP Users Getting Value for Money?

Research by many international organizations show Nigeria is one of the world’s fastest growing internet hubs. But as more operators set up masts within the country and more consumers subscribe to their services, Blessing Nwobodo examines if it has been a mutually beneficial deal so far. 
His job as an engineer with Ericsson Nigeria is to ensure the smooth flow of operations in terms of connectivity within the network. To help him achieve this, his company subscribes to CobraNet, an internet service firm. But like other internet service users who are disenchanted with the services from their providers, Tosin Akande has his own story to tell: “My company pays N13, 000 to CobraNet every month yet what we get is poor quality service. Recently, my mast got bad and I called them to come and fix it. What I saw in those few days baffled me. They totally ignored me. I had to go over to their office to beg them to come and fix the mast. Well, two staff followed me and when we got to the house, guess what they told me? They said I should go and find a ladder for them to climb and fix the mast. Tell me, is this how a customer should be treated? I got pissed and informed my company to stop the subscription.”
For Olumide Odewole, a business consultant, his experiences with his internet service providers have not been good either. According to him, there is either no network for days or when there is, the speed is at snail’s pace. An ugly experience he can’t readily forget was when he had to upload a magazine to his printers abroad. “The magazine had an estimate of 400Mb and it took us four whole days to do so. Can you beat that? We were using Zoom Blast; this is supposed to be the highest form of fast delivery and to top it all, we paid 15,000 thousand naira for it,” he said.
The experiences of Akande and Odewole are a small fraction of the many ugly experiences consumers of ISPs are faced with day in, day out. Over the years ISPs have gained significant ground in Nigeria. Traditional internet service providers are currently facing stiff competition from internet services offered by mobile operators. The CDMA-based providers have upgraded their networks to the more advanced EVDO technology while their GSM counterparts who were initially reluctant to tap into the area are equally now aggressively marketing internet services as part of product offerings. Yet, thequality of service delivery is reportedly far from satisfactory. One is inundated with offerings like 3G and 3.5G which should mean very high speed quality, but in reality, this is not usually the case. 
Explaining the low quality of delivery in this part of the world, Lanre Ajayi, CEO, Pinet Informatics, says the cost of international bandwidth to Nigeria is still on the high side. According to him, this ultimately leads operators to develop several tricks in order to deliver at costs most consumers can afford. In his words “if the cost of international bandwidth is high and the consumer is not willing to pay corresponding high cost, the only variable that will suffer is the quality of service and that is what is happening.” Consequently, consumers are getting the quality of service paid for.
But many users think otherwise. Oluwaseun Ogunleye, an SME brand consultant, says “It is the mentality we have been forced to live with. The operators know that anything you give an average Nigerian will be accepted without a fight and that is why they can afford to deliver substandard services to us.”
Her view is shared by Bayero Agabi, Presenter, AIT Infotech Network, who is also displeased with his service providers. According to him, the failure of the National Communication Commission NCC, to focus on internet service delivery is the reason ISP owners take their consumers for granted. He queries, “How can you pay for a month unlimited access and yet for half of the month there is no access while the remaining is just plug and pray it connects and remains connected.” Consumers also claim that there are some areas which are yet to be properly harnessed by the operators to deliver on their promises, besides speed.
But, like they say, one man’s meat is another’s poison. M2 findings show that while a consumer may rate the quality of a particular ISP poor, another will rate it satisfactory.
For Agabi, of the three ISPs he is currently using, Izap from Starcomms is the most stable and reliable. The other two are Zoom mobile internet and Glo 3G. However, Tope Ogundele, an Airline ticketing staff, uses Zoom mobile internet. He says he is very satisfied with the quality of service even though it is expensive and has limited areas of coverage. “I pay four thousand naira per month for the service even though it is not 24hrs. But I must confess that it is good and fast too,” he says.
Experts say the reason for the difference may not be unconnected to the fact that some operators’ subscription base is bigger than the infrastructure they have to meet consumers’ need. Aminu Ibrahim, convenor of the Nigeria ICT forum reveals that “there are various obstacles in the way militating against the provision of quality service by ISPs. The infrastructure needed to provide quality service is readily not available due to poor funding and some management logistics such as power. However, you will observe that when some of them start they are usually very good but as time goes on, the quality of service begins to dwindle because they now have a customer base that far surpasses the infrastructure on ground to deliver the required service.”
In his own view Emmanuel Ekuwem, President, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria ATCON, remarks that some ISPs are better positioned than the others in terms of expertise and funding. According to him, ISPs that are poorly funded find it extremely difficult to deliver on promises. He equally points out that the continuous vandalisation of cables by hoodlums is another major setback to quality internet service delivery.
While consumers may not be having the best of times now, it is hoped that the emergence of Glo optic fibre and Main One, set to commence operations soon, will address the problem of poor internet service delivery. Ajayi asserts that “As soon as Glo optic fibre and Main One start operating, consumers should expect quality service at an affordable price.”