Telecommunication Technology: Issues and Trends In West Africa

The Management Network In continuation of my earlier discuss on communication problems and issues in Nigeria, I conclude this discussion by looking at the side of the network that deals directly with the customer . This side of the network deals directly with customer management or subscriber management. These days a lot of self service portals have been introduced in many mobile networks worldwide. These portals deals with mostly issues of bill query, SIM replacement, prepaid management like recharge matters through scratch card or some e-payment systems. It also include self subscription modules where a subscribe can subscribe to a service via a web interface. But for few networks, most of these self service portals are either non functional or out rightly deficient at best. Most are actually non functional web sites with very little to offer. In one of the big three networks, at the latter part of this year, it was impossible to recharge your phone for close to two weeks running, no...

Hi, It is my intention to do a series on the innefficient communication networks we have in Nigeria and I welcome comments on this. It is over eight years now since the introduction of GSM and other mobile network services in Nigeria, given birth to a number of operators in the industry. While NCC has been largely successful in selling communication licenses to would be operators and existing ones, it has not met with equal success in regulating these kinds and quality of networks being rolled out in Nigeria. This have subjected the industry to a number of speculations and bad and poorly designed networks and equipment flooding the market with the attendant poor quality of services from all the operators and leaving the subscribers to the mercies of these operators whose only goal is profit, profit and moor profit. In these series I will like to pursue the causes of these poor qualities of services in the Nigerian telecom industry and perhaps proffer some solution to these problems. Wh...