MTN, since its emergence in the African telecommunications scene, has been pivotal in spreading internet services across almost every city in the continent. Little wonder why it is highly rated amongst Africa’s most valuable brands. Out of its 22 operations in Africa and Middle East, MTN Nigeria still maintains the top position in subscriber number rating, with 61.25 million subscribers as at last quarter 2015 according to the NCC. Needless to say, MTN’s major market is in Nigeria.
What that also means is that Nigeria should be the preferred destination for the telco's newest and most innovative products and services, if it intends to catch a wider audience, within a short space of time. Trust me, Nigerians know how to spread anything, even rumours. Speaking of product and services, people in this part of the world may have seen it all from MTN. Nigerians are lovers of trend, so that wouldn't come as a surprise. If there’s any country that has pushed MTN to their finest of services ranging from customer to product services (awoofs and the likes), Nigerians sit on top of the log. And like Oliver Twist, we always ask for more. Something in that line I guess must have spurned the company’s acquisition of Visafone in order to utilise its 800MHz spectrum to launch Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) services.
But it’s a shocker to learn that while we’re all still anticipating these high flying 4G services to soar our internet activities to the next level of exploration, MTN has gone ahead to launch it in Rwanda.
For me this appears as a back stab of some sort. No disrespect to Rwanda, but what happened to the whole noise that has been made about having the service up and running in Nigeria, and the more important question; why Rwanda and not Nigeria? I’m almost tempted to start putting stats besides stats to make my point, but if only that would turn back the hands of time and have my beloved country enjoying what it so deserve.
I understand MTN Nigeria has not found it easy going recently battling NCC fines and Etisalat struggles, but hey, all those worries have been nipped in the bud, and we're more than ready for this innovation. I somehow smell some kind of conspiracy theory along these things lines of virtual reality, and my heart cries out “Where is my 4G LTE service?”
Not also forgetting in a hurry that when MTN acquired Visafone, it also cost some people their jobs. A lot of people in fact, and while we're still mourning their loss, our consolation lies in the futuristic promise the whole idea brings. So I'd rather prefer not to think that their loss or Nigerian mourning for their loss were in vain.
So can someone explain to me what is actually happening?
Photo Credit: 10b travelling via Compfight cc
