4G LTE Network Performance For Mobile Network Operators in Nigeria
In recent times, the telecommunication industry as evolved greatly and has positively transformed the lives of so many across the globe. As a Professional in the Telecommunication industry with over ten years of working experience in Europe, it gladdens my heart when I returned home to Nigeria in December 2016 and discovered that there is a functioning 4G LTE mobile Network. This prompted me to carefully examine and write on the performance of 4G LTE Network in Nigeria.
What is 4G LTE?
LTE (Long Term Evolution) in telecommunication is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile devices and data terminals. LTE belongs to the Fourth Generation of mobile communication and hence is commonly marketed as 4G LTE. The 4G LTE mobile phone services were first launched in September 2010 by Major North American Carriers. However in Nigeria, most Mobile Telecom Operators launched their LTE network services in October 2016, six years after most other developed countries launched theirs.
The advent of the launch of LTE in Nigeria since October 2016 has brought about increase in the use of 4G Smart phones in Nigeria with most users hoping to enjoy the benefits of 4G LTE. The 4G LTE is expected to deliver better services and lots of benefits compared to its predecessor 3G network. The benefits of higher data transfer download speed of 300Mbps, Upload speed of 75Mbps, reduced data transfer latency of 5ms, flexible bandwidth, wider coverage radius and better multi-media services such as video and music streaming, online gaming, video calls, etc are among those benefits expected to be enjoyed by 4G LTE users. With 4G LTE, a movie can be downloaded in a matter of few minutes and you enjoy uninterrupted streaming of Live football matches and other TV programs. Following the above expected benefits, it is important to carefully examine the performance of 4G LTE Network providers in Nigeria with regards to the user experience and Quality of service. The performance and rating of the 3 major mobile 4G LTE providers (9Mobile, MTN and Glo: Airtel LTE not yet launched) will be based on the following criteria;
1. LTE Coverage: The LTE coverage in Nigeria is limited to most major cities and state-capitals where most high-end 4G phones can be found. It is observed that the three operators initially covered the three Major cities of Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. But Glo has more LTE coverage other than these 3 cities which makes them rank first in terms of LTE Coverage. The signal strength and quality is good in most areas. Glo has LTE network in nine major cities which include Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Benin, Warri, Jos, Kano, Kaduna and Enugu. Most tertiary institutions in Nigeria have Glo 4G LTE network.
MTN has a good number of sites in Abuja, Lagos, Portharcourt, Ibadan Kaduna and Kano. 9mobile also has quite a number of sites spread across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna.
Glo which uses the lower frequency band 28 (700MHz) for LTE also has the advantage of wider coverage radius for the sites at the various locations and stronger signal strength unlike the higher frequency band 7 (2600MHz) used by MTN and band 3 (1800MHz) used by 9mobile. The Glo LTE Network covers more areas than that of other operators.
Using Lagos as an example and the coverage data obtained from the opensignal website as shown below.

2. LTE Data Speed: The LTE data speed in downloads or uploads of data on the network is one of the important benefits of LTE. The LTE speed enjoyed by each user can be affected by different factors such as the total number of users on the serving LTE cell, the operator Frequency bandwidth, coverage signal strenth and quality, etc. In order to compare the 3 operator performance, speed test was conducted in some areas in Lagos. These areas include, Victoria Island, Apapa and Ikeja and it was observed that Glo has highest LTE throughput in these areas compared with MTN and 9mobile. Glo has 50.30Mbps download and 18.45Mbps Upload speed, MTN closely followed Glo with download speed of 41.61Mbps and Upload speed of 14.64Mbps as shown in the snapshots below. 9mobile performance is quite lower compared to the first two operatos with download speed of 11.7Mbps and Upload speed of 8.9Mbps. With Glo LTE I can download a movie of 2GB in two or three minutes, open web pages in few seconds and so on. The high user LTE speed of Glo can be attributed to lesser number of users per cell on the Glo network due to few smart phones in Nigeria that can support Frequency band 28 used by Glo i.e fewer users share the available eNode resources for services. The transfer latency of Glo is 19ms, that of MTN is 22ms and 9mobile is 17ms.

3. LTE Data Plan: From the data plan gathered from different customer centres of the 3 operators, Glo has the cheapest and most flexible LTE data plan which makes their 4G LTE services readily affordable for most users. The data plan of MTN is ranked the second with flexible options of night and day packages to chooose from. 9mobile’s data plan is comparatively higher than the other two 4G operators. For example, monthly data plan of Glo gives 3.75GB for N2000, MTN offers 3.5GB for N2000 and 9mobile offers 2.5GB for N2000. Other plans are shown below.

Following the analysis above, comparing LTE coverage, data plan and user data transfer speed experience, Glo ranks number one and the best in the provisioning of 4G LTE services to subscribers in Nigeria. It gives me such joy that a Nigerian-owned telecom company that first introduced per second billing is also the best in providing 4G LTE network services at the best affordable prices. I am very proundful of this.
Therefore, for me Glo 4G LTE is recommended for 4G users since the network resource are lightly utilized and not yet congested, so more Network LTE resources will be enjoyed per user. Also there is wider LTE Network coverage across nine cities and the data plans are simply the cheapest and the best.
However, LTE Network Providers in Nigeria have a lot of miles to go in competing with their foreign counter-parts in delivery of 4G LTE Network benefits to subscribers in Nigeria. The operators need provide better coverage across all states in Nigeria as there is increase in the number of 4G phones in Nigeria and more potential subscribers across the nation.

K

Mtn is only availaible in lagos, abuja and portharcout.
They deactivated other areas since february. You won't even get 4g signal at their office.

MetaHuman:
Mtn is only availaible in lagos, abuja and portharcout.

They deactivated other areas since february.
You won't even get 4g signal at their office.

But why?

lastbaff:
But why?

me self no know o.

MetaHuman:
Mtn is only availaible in lagos, abuja and portharcout.

They deactivated other areas since february.
You won't even get 4g signal at their office.

lastbaff:

But why?

I guess they deactivated the visafone service. There were rumors that NCC asked them to stop using it. I can't verify it though

*** modified ***

Here is a link. The band 20 seems to be discontinued

https://www.financialwatchngr.com/2016/09/28/ncc-says-visafones-spectrum-not-sold-to-mtn/

Op speedtest depends on the device you are using and location. I have seen cases where mtn trounce glo in 4G speeds

GrandMufti:




I guess they deactivated the visafone service. There were rumors that NCC asked them to stop using it. I can't verify it though

*** modified ***

Here is a link. The band 20 seems to be discontinued

https://www.financialwatchngr.com/2016/09/28/ncc-says-visafones-spectrum-not-sold-to-mtn/

then how come people stilll use mtn 4g in lagos , abuja and ph?

MetaHuman:
then how come people stilll use mtn 4g in lagos , abuja and ph?

Mtn have their own band 7 spectrum issued by NCC.

They were using it in conjunction with visafone's band 20. Rumor has it that other players in the telecom industry lobbied NCC to prevent mtn from having an unfair advantage. So NCC said part of mtn's deal to acquire visafone did not include their band 20 LTE spectrum.

GrandMufti:




I guess they deactivated the visafone service. There were rumors that NCC asked them to stop using it. I can't verify it though

*** modified ***

Here is a link. The band 20 seems to be discontinued

https://www.financialwatchngr.com/2016/09/28/ncc-says-visafones-spectrum-not-sold-to-mtn/

MTN still uses band 20(800mhz), but only on the Visafone side of the network, meaning MTN now issues sims which are on the Visafone number range. For instance, 0704 for mobile, or landline number range depending on the state the SIM is issued. For instance, I've a Visafone landline number that starts with 09-2900... the first 09 is Abuja's landline dial code. The uniqueness of these Visafone based sims is that they are fully on the MTN network, with full privilege of all MTN Tariff and data plans, plus LTE band 20 support in addition to band 7, which the normal MTN sims don't have.

So that's how MTN was able to circumvent the NCC restrictions

dustmalik:

MTN still uses band 20(800mhz), but only on the Visafone side of the network, meaning MTN now issues sims which are on the Visafone number range. For instance, 0704 for mobile, or landline number range depending on the state the SIM is issued. For instance, I've a Visafone landline number that starts with 09-2900... the first 09 is Abuja's landline dial code. The uniqueness of these Visafone based sims is that they are fully on the MTN network, with full privilege of all MTN Tariff and data plans, plus LTE band 20 support in addition to band 7, which the normal MTN sims don't have.

So that's how MTN was able to circumvent the NCC restrictions

Ok then.. Too smart of them

MetaHuman:
Mtn is only availaible in lagos, abuja and portharcout.

They deactivated other areas since february.
You won't even get 4g signal at their office.

I said it some 5 months ago on this forum, that MTN does not plan on deploying its band 7 nationwide. What MTN is doing is to leverage the existing Visafone infrastructure, to deploy LTE band 20 in some states. This is already happening in Plateau and some other states.

So, if you are in one of those states, just walk into an MTN outlet and request for a sim on the Visafone number range. Make sure your device supports LTE band 20.

GrandMufti:




I guess they deactivated the visafone service. There were rumors that NCC asked them to stop using it. I can't verify it though

*** modified ***

Here is a link. The band 20 seems to be discontinued

https://www.financialwatchngr.com/2016/09/28/ncc-says-visafones-spectrum-not-sold-to-mtn/

But why would ncc do that if it's true. Same ncc stopped mid night calls for them

dustmalik:

MTN still uses band 20(800mhz), but only on the Visafone side of the network, meaning MTN now issues sims which are on the Visafone number range. For instance, 0704 for mobile, or landline number range depending on the state the SIM is issued. For instance, I've a Visafone landline number that starts with 09-2900... the first 09 is Abuja's landline dial code. The uniqueness of these Visafone based sims is that they are fully on the MTN network, with full privilege of all MTN Tariff and data plans, plus LTE band 20 support in addition to band 7, which the normal MTN sims don't have.

So that's how MTN was able to circumvent the NCC restrictions

Do you have idea why mid night calls was stopped by MTN?

asuustrike2009:

But why would ncc do that if it's true. Same ncc stopped mid night calls for them

The same way they colluded with telecos to increase data tariff. You begin to wonder if they are anti people

GrandMufti:

The same way they colluded with telecos to increase data tariff. You begin to wonder if they are anti people

Na wa

asuustrike2009:

Do you have idea why mid night calls was stopped by MTN?

No, I have no idea

Mehn who get energy read all dat..

Further discussing the evolving demand for high-speed data which characterizes our ICT driven environment there has been remarkable growth in high-speed data usage in Nigeria as well as the availability of a handful of quality data service providers offering 4G LTE services such as GLO, MTN, 9Mobile, Smile, Swift, Spectranet, IPNX, Ntel, InterC e.t.c. Of all the listed operators GLO has the largest 4G LTE Network coverage in Nigeria with services widespread across major Cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Warri, Asaba, Benin, Eket, Jos, Kaduna, Ibadan, Osun, Yola.

GLO has really impressive 4G LTE throughput when compared with other current market competitors (see data speed test result below). And as the largest 4G LTE Network in Nigeria it offers the best advantage of accessing quality high-speed data in several states across the Nation.

In addition, GLO has the cheapest and most flexible 4G LTE data plan which makes their 4G LTE services readily affordable for most data users which ranks GLO 4G LTE number one and the best in the provisioning of 4G LTE services to subscribers in Nigeria.

Does anyone here using LTE on GLO know if one needs to get a hold of a LTE sim for GLO? That is - Is a sim swap needed in order to get LTE on GLO? I did not have to do it with my MTN. My same old MTN sim connected to their LTE network on Band 7, when I was in Naija a few months ago.

Bossman:
Does anyone here using LTE on GLO know if one needs to get a hold of a LTE sim for GLO? That is - Is a sim swap needed in order to get LTE on GLO? I did not have to do it with my MTN. My same old MTN sim connected to their LTE network on Band 7, when I was in Naija a few months ago.

...To use 4G services you can either purchase a new 4G SIM of your desired Network or if you are an existing subscriber on 3G Network you can upgrade your current 3G SIM to a 4G SIM...

Perhaps the old MTN line you have was purchased as a 4G SIM

Thanks. I will upgrade to a 4G sim when I am there in a couple of months.

Emmandipo:


...To use 4G services you can either purchase a new 4G SIM of your desired Network or if you are an existing subscriber on 3G Network you can upgrade your current 3G SIM to a 4G SIM...

Perhaps the old MTN line you have was purchased as a 4G SIM