Phone Price war in Nigeria

In Nigeria's interesting and fast growing phone market, a war has broken out. And this time it's not guns or bombs that are the tools of war but prices and promotions. They all aim to capture the bustling and sophisticated market. The market is large - the largest in Africa, but in this market only the tough survive. Keen competitors amongst the operators has been a key feature of the deregulation of Nigeria's Telecommunications industry.

The active GSM operators (MTN, Vmobile and Globacom) have all slashed activation charges. The aggressive approach is to increase market share by getting more subscribers to their mobile networks.

Interestingly, Mtel, the government owned mobile service provider has no promotion as it seems it is still faced with resolving internal problems as evidenced by the recent sacking the CEO and 6 top officials.

Who is promoting what?

Globacom has again shaken up the market. Globacom was the first network to introduce Pay by the Second, Text to Email. It now sells its SIM Card for N1. Glomobile recently a price of N1 only for its Prepaid Classic lines. The SIM pack (card and airtime) goes for N1,999 - airtime (credit) of N1,998 and SIM card - N1 only. The One Naira promotion was announced on Nigeria's independence day - independence day gift?

MTN. Nigeria's leading GSM operator, had also just announced a new price of N1,980 for its Pay as You Go brand, with a bonus of N500 airtime.

Vmobile has given every subscriber a bonus of 12 free text messages per month from October 2004 to October 2006.Vmobile also announced a price change in its SIM packs from N5, 000 to N2, 999.

 

Who wins?

Promotion is the air and competition is everywhere. But if quality of service is up to standard, Globacom's offer seems to have beaten all comers again. Glo Mobile in addition announced that the new offer includes free Glo Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Glo Mobile Internet. MMS is the feature on the Glo network which gives subscribers the opportunity of sending picture, text and sound in a single message while Glo Mobile Internet gives Glo subscribers the privilege of browsing popular internet sites like yahoo, google and BBC on their mobile phone. The Globacom package includes free SMS within the Glo network with every recharge (2 for N500 and 5 for others).
In this latest move by Globacom, international call rates have also been reduced by nearly 50 per cent.

The One Naira Promotion is expected to last till the end of this month.

Other fixed wireless phone providers, such as Starcomms and MTS also unveiled new rates and offers for their phone services.

It should however be noted that activation fees only form a portion of the mobile phone bill in Nigeria. Many subscribers still believe tariffs are excessive and outrageous. This is no surprise as Nigerian mobile phone users pay the highest tariffs in Africa. We wait for the tariff promotion!

 

 

More on Telecom Providers and Issues in Nigeria:

Top Telecomm Providers in Nigeria

Nigeria: Bridging the Infrastructure Divide  

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