The Nigerian GSM operators have come a long way in Nigeria since 2002 (if I'm right), from launching the call and sms services. The best was yet to come until internet services were launched, especially the mobile internet services and this has changed how we assess the internet as it comes with ease of mobility; we really do not have to go to the café to assess the internet, it's now assessible on our mobile devices.

The idea of starting a cyber café was in my head for quite some time, it was a money spinning business and everyone who could afford the setup cost were having a good return on their investments. All that changed with the advent of smartphones. I remember the feeling of being able to receive my mails right on my Nokia E70 after following simple setup steps. Smart has kept getting smarter ever after.

However, it wasn't long before everyone started groaning under the crushing cost of assessing the internet on the mobile devices; God help you if you put on your device's internet without an internet subscription. It won't be long before you get a message like "The cost of your last call was...(your last checked balance)". The subscription costs are not cheap either, but while we still hope for further cost reductions, many of us have discovered a cheaper subscription in the SME Packages.

Now, I have bought and sold the MTN SME Data plan and found it far more affordable than any of their other direct bundles. But as good as ot is, there's a major problem I found with it, that's instead of the beneficiary having an independent validity period, MTN puts them under the same validity as the seller, so if the batch a customer buys from will expire in 5 day's time, his data will expire at the same time.

As a seller, have U encountered such problems with your customers and how did it go? As a buyer how did U handle it when the data you were told has a 30 day validity expired b4 30 days. What are your experiences with other networks subscribing to SME plans. Let's see if there are enough people in this 'market' to make the networks have a second look at this increasingly popular package with a view to improving it.