It is often said that because it is a new year doesn’t mean everything will automatically become new. That might be true for some sectors, but Nigeria’s tech world, there is bound to be a lot of new changes come 2015. Glamtech sheds light on juicy surprises to expect in the New Year.



The return of Nitel
One of the most exciting developments 2015 is expected to bring is the rebranded return of the moribund Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, NITEL, and its mobile arm, Mobile Telecommunications, MOBITEL. Recall that with a bid price of $252. 25 million, NATCOM finally became the preferred bidder for NITEL after years of haggling among different bidders.
That is no longer news. But industry sources say that the new company is set to launch next year and is currently in partner with a major telecom operator to get the right structures in place. What’s more, tariffs on the new NITEL are expected to be cheaper than on other networks.
Could this mark the re-emergence of landlines? No one knows for sure, but it wouldn’t be the first time talk about going back to landlines would be coming up in tech circles. In fact, at the 2nd West Africa Conference on Electromagnetic Fields, EMF, and Health, experts debated that in the long run, landlines could be considered as safer for the general well being of people than mobile phones.
Cheaper calls
If reports of the new NITEL’s cheaper tariffs are anything to go by, then calls might just become even cheaper across all networks because of the new competition. This would be good for the industry as a report in early 2014 revealed that Nigerians have one of the highest tariffs in the world.
Broadband penetration
Even though Nigeria has at least 120 million active lines, broadband penetration still stands at a meagre 6%. This is not expected to remain so for long as the Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, and other high ranking officials in the sector have been campaigning for more and more investment in the area of broadband.
More start ups, inventions and contribution to GDP
The dwindling oil prices and consequent cuts in the 2015 budget mean that other sectors are becoming more and more essential in their contributions to the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Information and communication technology, ICT, accounted for 9.58% of Nigeria’s GDP in 2014. With a growing enabling environment for more start ups and inventions, this percentage is very likely to increase in 2015.

Source:http://naijafussion..com/2015/01/the-return-of-nitel-and-other-tech.html

Time will tell, we in 2015 already. Anything dey av to shld quick n smart.