The new Managing Director, Smile Communications Nigeria Limited, Mr. Michiel Buitelaar, in this interview with Emeka Aginam spoke on the company’s new direction and strategies to educate the masses on the offerings of Smile Communications. Excerpts:
MOBILE internet penetration in Nigeria
Mobile internet penetration, no doubt, is still low in Nigeria at the moment but there is a conscious drive to deepen its penetration by Nigerians that have embraced this new wave of technology development. The rate at which smartphones sell in the country is an indication of the fact that there will soon be a boom in mobile web applications and usage in Nigeria.
Between voice and data
Yes, there is a wide margin between voice and data communication in the country, but I see data communication coming up fast and Smile as a data service provider, will continue to roll out new products and services in the area of data communication for Nigerians to leverage on.
With the way data communication is growing in the country, Data connectivity will surpass voice in the near future. Today telecommunication operators are unbundling their services by offering data services, alongside the voice services, which they are known for.
Success story
The biggest success story globally today, is with data connectivity, going by uploads and downloads on Google Apps Stores. With the way data is going, time will come when there will be enough data applications to address any kind of challenges you can think of, and all these are about data connectivity and penetration.
Lots of data application is changing the way people do things because data applications are already addressing basic human challenges and the future is expected to be great with data connectivity.
Strategies to sustain the growth of Smile Communications and quality of service
When I resumed as the Managing Director, I met a structured system on ground and I will like to build on that system and further improve on it through further awareness creation about the brand and its service provisioning. Education of the masses on the offerings of Smile will be my priority, among others.
There are enormous benefits in data communication and I will champion that through an awareness campaign that will educate the people of Nigeria about the benefits therein. I am convinced that Smile Communications can play a vital role in this direction. We will continue to educate Nigerians about the internet, its benefits and how to manage early data depletion. We will also be advocates of eCommerce by telling Nigerians how they can make their businesses a lot better, while trading online, and how they can better their lives through connectivity. We are already operational in four cities, Ibadan, Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and we plan to double that Roll-Roll out plan within a short period of time
Strategies to cover the entire country with data services
We will make our services available to Nigerians but cannot cover the entire country in a short period of time because Nigeria is a large country with huge population and vast landmark area. What we will continue to do is a gradual rollout process, and ensure we consolidate well in any area we roll out our services. We will continue to offer high speed connectivity to Nigerians with high quality of service.
What we are doing in the four cities currently covered is to make them more dense in terms of coverage areas. We are putting in more cell sites and increasing the density.
Competition and price war in data communication business in Nigeria
Competition is good, especially healthy competition that will bring about market growth, but price war is inimical to business development, because it will weaken market growth.
Market growth
What operators need is to invest in infrastructure and not engaging in price war with their competitors.
How smartphones can help drive mobile internet penetration in the country
They will definitely help to a large extent in driving mobile web penetration. With smartphones at affordable cost and connectivity, Nigerians will experience data boom in no distant time. The growth of mobile application is another way through which mobile web could grow rapidly in the country. Nigerians are beginning to apply different software applications to address immediate needs.
Government regulation in the telecommunications industry
From my calculation, based on what I have read in the newspapers, government meant well for fast broadband rollout in the country, which of course is targeted at deepening internet penetration in the country.
Source
vanguard
