Is it just me or anytime any telecoms company pulls up a new promo we are excited and so wish we will be one of the many persons that gets to win one of the mouth watering and amazing prizes.

It is a well known fact that all promos are just the marketing arm of every company trying to brand the company and increase their consumer base, we have no crime with that but we are left to wonder if this is more than marketing, or some sort of professional scam.

Come on look at it they spend so much on publicizing these products but do very little to actually justify its authenticity, i just visited one of the telecoms companies currently running a three month promo and all I could see was a lot of talk on how Nigerians stand to win a lot of prizes and gifts if and only if they buy SIMS and register, but not even a sign to authenticate that people are actually winning these prizes - blackberries to be more precise, if people are winning blackberries every minute wont you be lucky to get one or at least know someone who has won one.

The promo states that Consumers who buy new sims and register stand a chance to win Blackberry phone (curve 4) every hour for three months. Lets do the math if from the month of January to February people are to win a blackberry curve 4 every hour for two months it equates to 7272000 winners in two months……hmmmmm, Am I the only one screaming SCAM SCAM SCAM.

However I just hope NCC would actually wake up and recognize this and maybe put a foot down to avoid this deception or are they in ties with these telecoms Giants.

This is a very strong plea to the Telecoms Companies if you going to run on lies and fabrications don’t do it at the expense of innocent Nigerians who will patronize you with or without your lies.

www.telecomscompare.com.

If you stay online regularly and you have a Gmail account, then this post will really interest you! Gmail, which is the free email service rendered by the world internet giant search engine “Google” now has an SMS integrated feature that lets you send free text messages (SMS) directly from your Gmail account to your friend’s mobile phone numbers while sitting on your computer. This offer will really be of help to you, if the nature of your job demands you stay online for a reasonable amount of time. Instead of bugging your head on how to send a text for a fee, you can easily stay on your computer and as many free SMS as you want to colleagues, family members and friends.


The striking side of it is that the offer has been made available for virtually all the major telecommunication networks in the country, so you can be sure that your service provider is not left out. Gmail SMS is currently available in Nigeria for the following networks:
MTN, Airtel, Starcomms, Glo, Visafone.


If you are using Etisalat or any other network not mentioned above then it means the Gmail free SMS service is not yet available for your network.

So how can you actually send a free SMS from your Gmail account to a mobile phone? Lets see it together!


Step 1: Log into your Gmail account. In the Send SMS box above Chat as I circled below, enter the phone number you want to send a SMS to.

Step 2: In the dialog box, enter Contact name of the SMS recipient and check that country and phone number are correct. Then, click Save.

Step 3: Type your message in the chat window and hit Enter.

Step 4: Your message will be sent to the phone number you entered. A sample of the reply that came to my phone reads below:

Evon is text running the Gmail free SMS service. Really cool and fun!
(Gmail)
evonreply@gmail.com initiated a chat with you. You may reply to this message like a regular SMS or send HELP for more info
Sender: 20202055

If your contact replies, the text message response will appear as a reply in Chat. These conversations are stored in your Chat history just like regular chats. Learn more about Gmail SMS.

Note: Sending and receiving a message from Gmail to any phone is free. When replying with an SMS from phone to Gmail, you will be charged a regular SMS rate by your mobile provider.

visit www.telecomscompare.com for details

The new mobile money technology has taken an edge in South Africa, where electricity consumers will now be able to buy electricity vouchers through their mobile phones using the Mobile Money (MM) service.

This service is offered by Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) and is integrated with MTN South Africa as Swazi MTN. Swazi MTN has already made it possible for people to enjoy this convenience and can purchase electricity vouchers of any amounts .

The company’s Corporate Affairs Manager Mphumelelo Makhubu elaborated that the MM team was now working towards commercially launching soon the MM electricity.

“In fact, the service is now up and running but it has not been commercially launched in the market,” he said.
All you need to do to enjoy this service is to subscribe as an MM user by entering *007# and follow the instructions.

Makhubu said they encouraged their customers to subscribe to MM to enjoy the convenience brought about by Mobile Money.

This is indeed a moving trend! It's observed that this mobile technology has been launched in Nigeria and other African countries are on it. What a thing we can do with our mobile phones!

What do you think about this technology? Lets know your stand below,

Punch: When will the harmonisation of SIM registration data be completed?

Dr. Eugene Juwah: You will realise that SIM registration, as simple as it looks, is a huge project. There is no centralised identity database in Nigeria today. Most likely, the SIM card database will be the first centralised Nigerian identity database that will be available to the government in Nigeria. Registration has ended. We announced it when it came to an end, but registration of SIM cards is a continuous exercise. Even if we bar the subscribers from using the SIM cards, we still need to give them the opportunity to register their SIMs later as a condition to be able to make calls.

So, this idea that SIM cards will be disconnected indefinitely is a misunderstanding of the project and what we are saying is that while we are doing harmonisation, people who have not registered should take the opportunity to register. We feel that a lot of Nigerians have registered for now. In fact, the people that are remaining are not very many.

The SIM card data is currently being uploaded onto our backend servers. So, it is a huge effort and there are operators that have registered 40 million; there are some that have registered less and it takes time to upload these data because of the volume of the data. It contains details in words, picture, fingerprint and all that. I can tell you that to upload something like 20 million subscribers will take weeks.

So, we are about concluding the uploading right now. Of course, we are a little bit behind schedule but there is nothing you can do when some of the operators are having difficulty in uploading their data. But we are about concluding that. Now, when we do conclude that, there will be an automatic verification of the registration status. In about a week’s time, we will come out to tell the country how this is going to be done.

But it is going to be automatic where people are able to verify their registration status themselves. This will go on for about 30 days, after which we will take it that if you have not registered and if you don’t want to verify your status by identifying that your data are not correct, after 30 days, we are going to bar those cards until they are registered.

The latest subscriber data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has shown that Nigeria's telecommunications industry’s teledensity has hit 68.1 per cent, while the total number of mobile connected lines in the country has climbed to 127.2 million. This hit is however, is not a surpising one as a one time report made by the Association of Wordwide Mobile Phone Operators has it that Africa (of which Nigeria is a major player) tops continent using mobile phones in the world.

Specifically, the data, which is the November 2011 edition informed that, the country’s telecoms teledensity grew from 64.2 per cent in January 2011 to 68.1 per cent by November, while the total connected lines rose from 114.2 million to 127.2 within the same period.

Teledensity is the number of landline telephones in use for every 100 individuals living within an area. A teledensity greater than 100 means there are more telephones than people.

Furthermore, the NCC statistics explained that from the 127.2 million, the active mobile subscriptions in the country stood at 95.4 million. The GSM operators have 89.9 million subscribers; the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators have 4.78 million subscriptions while the Fixed Wired/Wireless operators can only lay claims to only 753,383 users.

From the NCC’s statistics, it was observed while the GSM operators continued on an upward swing, but both the CDMA and Fixed Wired/Wireless subscriptions slide further.

For instance, the CDMA operators as at January 2011 had active subscriptions of 6.18 million but went down drastically to 4.78 million by November 2011, which is about 1.4 million mobile subscription losses. Same goes for the Fixed Wired/Wireless, which had 1.03 million users in January 2011 and declined to 753,383 by November of the same period.

According to analyst, the challenges faced especially by the CDMA operators, the slide in their subscriptions would have resulted to about N10 billion loss based on the Average Revenue Per User in Nigeria currently put at N1,000 per month.

Meanwhile, the former Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, had urged the Federal Government to increase the country‘s teledensity from the current level to 100 per cent.

This, he said, was necessary if the country must achieve the Vision 2020, as well as meet the Millennium Development Goals.

He said: ”Nigeria still needs to grow her teledensity figure from the current level of over 50 per cent to 100 per cent to achieve the Vision 2020 targets.

“We must reach all parts of the country with both voice and data carrying infrastructure. It is instructive to note that today, over 70 countries in the world have passed the 100 per cent teledensity level.”

Telecoms Compare will not fall short in keeping you posted with important and timely information of such as it is in our habit to. And you can also make your voice heard by been a member of telecoms compare. Do visit www.telecomcompare.com to get more details, become a member of the platform and enjoy freebies like free airtime and free sms.

The Mobile Money West Africa Summit for the year 2012 has been scheduled to take place from 5 to 6 day of March 2012 at the Prestigious Lagos Orientals Hotel, Victoria Island – Lagos, Nigeria. The theme for this year's summit is "Mobilizing Money." A standing factor about the need for this summit is the fact that more than 150 million West Africans own a mobile phone under an addressable population of 300 million making the technology available to more than half of the population in a region where access to formal financial services are still limited to the urban and semi urban areas whereas more than 60 percent of the productive adult population still reside in the rural areas.

The Summit is also channeled on reaching the millions of Africans left behind in the Mobile Financial World. "Rural dwellers are still travelling significant distances to have access to basic financial services while some still maintain centuries old habits of keeping cash at home or handing it over to the village savings man in an unsecure and inefficient manner."

Mobile money offers a new exciting channel to reach new market segments, offer new services and drive adoption in one of Africa’s most populated regions, West Africa.

The summit will showcase new technologies, drivers of mobile financial services, innovations that are taking Banking services from the brick and mortar to the ubiquitous mobile phones.

The ubiquitous mobile phone offers a transformational experience for millions that are denied the opportunity of formal financial services, paying for goods and services from the comfort of the mobile phone, accessing remittance services, whenever and whenever.

Various Speakers from all walks of life will be converging at the Prestigious Lagos Orientals Hotel, Victoria Island-Lagos, Nigeria to speak and chart the directions in the emerging mobile financial ecosystem in West Africa.

Telecoms Compare will not fall short in keeping you posted with important and timely information of such as it is in our habit to. And you can also make your voice heard by been a member of telecoms compare. Do visit www.telecomcompare.com to get more details, become a member of the platform and enjoy freebies like free airtime and free sms.

Globacom Nigeria Limited, one of the leading telecommunication company in Nigeria and Africa's largest Telecommunication Network has launched a unique youth product called "G-Bam Hi 5ive" The new youth program (G-Bam Hi 5ive) which was officially launched by Globacom’s Group Chief Operating Officer, Mohammed Jameel, at a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday, December 14 is designed to give subscribers a call freedom which will allow them to call five special numbers at only five kobo per second, get bonus airtime, free chatting and free scholarship.

In a speech made by Mr Mohammed, G-Bam Hi 5ive offers a unique proposition to the youths of Nigeria by making the immensely popular and ubiquitous social networking site Facebook Free. It also offers subscribers several other attractive benefits including free airtime on activation, free night calls and lowest SMS charges in the Nigerian telecoms market.

The G-Bam Hi 5ive comes with several benefits which will keep Nigerian youths on the go. Among the benefits are

G-BAM Weekender
This allows subscribers to chat all they want with Free weekend chatting. Text 'Chat' to 20805 and enjoy free chatting with friends from Friday 6pm to Saturday 6am and Saturday 6pm to Sunday 6am.

G-BAM Bonus
With the G-BAM, subscribers can earn N500 Free airtime upon SIM activation and recharge. Bonus of N100 on activation (N50 to any network and N50 to Glo) PLUS bonus of N200 each on 1st and 2nd recharge of N200 or more within 7days of activation.

G-BAM Social
The G-BAM allows you to socialize with your peeps like never before with Free Facebook browsing between 1am and 6am every day.

G-BAM Nites
With the Glo G-BAM, you own the night! G-BAM allows you to share everything with your crew with Free Night Calls. Use N200 or more in 7days and enjoy free calling to all Glo numbers for next 7days between 12 midnight and 5am for next 7days.

G-BAM Scholars
Stay on top of your game. Become a G-BAM scholar and fulfill your academic dreams with $5 million in scholarships for 1,000 students. Be on the G-BAM platform and you could be among the 250 students to earn $5,000 scholarships every quarter.

G-BAM Free Caller Tunes
Get your groove on! Come join Nigeria's hippest crew and get all your callers rocking with your free ring back tunes.

FREE Glo Radio Subscription
Listen to songs of your choice. It's your radio on the go on your mobile. Dial 77025 to subscribe.
Calls to any network @ 25k/sec

How to Get Started
To join the G-BAM generation and start enjoying all the goodies and freebies on the offer, existing Glo subscribers can simply migrate to the platform by dialing the code: *100*5*1# .If you are not already on Glo network, simply buy yourself a new Glo SIM pack from any of Glo world or Glo zone or dealer outlets and migrate using the same code above.

You can equally register a friend on the Glo G-BAM offer. To do that simply  dial: *101*1*FRIEND’S NUMBER#.

Telecoms Compare will not fall short in keeping you posted with important and timely information of such as it is in our habit to. And you can also make your voice heard by been a member of telecoms compare. Do visit www.telecomcompare.com to get more details, become a member of the platform and enjoy freebies like free airtime and free sms.

Against the background of enforcement of quality of service (QoS) the regulatory body for service providers, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated its position when it pointed out that 2012 would be a competitive year for operators because of number portability (NP).

Number Portability is a telecommunications service that enables mobile phone subscribers retain their telephone numbers when they change mobile operators. This means that a subscriber can move from one mobile operator to another without losing his or her number. This is commonly referred to as ‘porting’.

The benefits of NP include the freedom and convenience of retaining ones’ original number while migrating from any network. Subscribers would also receive all their calls and messages regardless of which mobile network they may have ported their numbers to and they would not need to inform their friends, relatives, colleagues or clients about their change of mobile operators.

NCC Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Dr. Okechukwu Itanyi, disclosed this in Lagos at a one-day capacity training organized for information and communication technology (ICT) journalists. While admitting that the commission is working towards improving access to broadband, noted that NCC is ready and willing to work with service providers to improve QoS. Itanyi predicted that 2012 would be an explosive year for the commission, because it will not rest on its oars till several issues militating against the telecoms sector are adequately addressed.

In his capacity as chairman of the training, Managing Director and Editor in Chief, Sun Publishing Ltd, Mr. Tony Onyima, in his remarks hinted that the Commission has additional responsibility to regulate properly the sector and train more journalists in the country because Nigeria is driven by a knowledge economy.“Human capital is the most challenging in the country, journalists must know what the NCC is doing. It is not possible to report what you don’t know especially since what Universities products do not meet the industry standard,” he stated.

He acknowledged that technology has changed lives tremendously and the more reason for intense human capital development, which is the most challenging in the country. On his part, Publisher/Chief Executive Officer of Business Day Newspaper, Mr. Frank Aigbogun, one of the resource persons explained that ICT has become an enabler for the sector.

Telecoms Compare will not fall short in keeping you posted with important and timely information of such as it is in our habit to. And you can also make your voice heard by been a member of telecoms compare. Do visit www.telecomcompare.com to get more details, become a member of the platform and enjoy freebies like free airtime and free sms.

Airtel Nigeria says it has expanded its network of locations and platforms where international airtime top up service can be done across the world, with the appointment of three major international top up firms as partners.

With the alliance.it said, Nigerians and others who reside in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, the Middle East, Spain, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Belgium, Canada and Sweden amongst others can now transfer airtime or recharge the Airtel lines of family and friends in Nigeria with ease. They can also recharge their lines while roaming in any of the designated country.

The deal with three of the world’s micropayment companies, Ezetop, Transfer-To and Prepay Nation, will help to ensure Airtel airtime is available for retail purchase at designated locations abroad, the company said in a statement.

Telecoms Compare will not fall short in keeping you posted with important and timely information of such as it is in our habit to. And you can also make your voice heard by been a member of telecoms compare. Do visit www.telecomcompare.com to get more details, become a member of the platform and enjoy freebies like free airtime and free sms.

On Friday 2nd December 2011, one of Nigeria’s fast growing telecommunications company - Etisalat launched the Etisalat Geek Force at the Silverbird Galleria, Lagos.

‘The Geeks Are Here’ was the phrase spread out on the streets of Lagos as the growing telecoms brand launched its new innovation.

The Etisalat Geek Force is a team of technology savvy and courteous sales staff who have been jointly trained by Etisalat’s in-house faculty and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to provide advisory services and to resolve technical issues on various devices at designated Etisalat Experience Centres.

Director Retail Sales, Etisalat Nigeria – Charles Ogunwuyi explained the aim of the Geek Force. He said “Etisalat is proud to introduce yet another innovation aimed at helping our customers make informed decisions on the technological investments they have made. The Geek Force teams will ensure that queries and device related issues encountered by our customers with modern communication gadgets like BlackBerry, other Smart phones and Modems are attended to in a professional manner.

All our Geeks are trained by our own in-house faculty and the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Nokia, Blackberry, Samsung, Huawei and ZTE and have the skill set to install, configure, synchronize and set up email accounts, upgrade OS, set-up wireless connections and provide technology consultations amongst other things” and he further explained the company has also established an interactive forum between the Geeks and customers using a Facebook page called ‘Geek Corner to enable customer questions and queries to be dealt with accordingly.

And he concluded by saying “We are always providing Nigerians with innovative products and services as well as the best value possible. The ‘Geek Force’ is a first of its kind in the industry and will enhance our customers’ communication experience”

The Geek Force teams are available at designated Etisalat Experience Centres in major cities across Nigeria including Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Ibadan, Benin, Enugu, Warri, Aba, Uyo, Kaduna, Asaba and Ughelli.

Aero, one of the most innovative airlines in West Africa has announced a Twitter competition that lets you recommend followers to its Twitter handle @flyaero and win flight tickets.

The competition could help increase the airline’s Twitter followers which is currently over 2,000 and further enable the brand to engage with its fans and customers.

For every 50 followers you recommend to follow @flyaero, you get a free return ticket and for every 100 followers you recommend, you get a free return ticket for 2 – you and your partner.

So if you get people to follow @flyaero on Twitter, they must mention you and @flyaero in a single tweet with the phrase ‘RECOMMENDED BY’ for it to count.

For example, the people you recommend to follow @flyaero should tweet ‘Now following @flyaero RECOMMENDED BY @techloy’

The competition is starting on 19th December, 2011 and ends on 2nd January, 2012. Aero wants to give away at least 20 free return tickets in the month of February as part of its Valentine’s month promo.

All winners will be expected to use their tickets during the month of February 2012.

MTN is reportedly bidding to buy Multilinks’ backbone network infrastructure in Nigeria, according to BusinessDay.

The purported bid for Multilink’s fibre transmission backbone is important to MTN as it seeks to expand its market leadership in the data and internet services market.

Sources say that Multilinks owns one of the most robust terrestrial fibre optic network which connects 21 out of Nigeria’s 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with an estimated construction cost of over $150 million.

Thus, if the acquisition of Multilinks backbone falls through, it could mean that MTN would own substantially more than 50% of long distance transmission networks in Nigeria.

Earlier, Helios Towers, a telecom infrastructure company had acquired 100% stake in Multilinks, but reportedly plans to sell its mobile phone business.

visit www.telecomscompare.com to get more details and enjoy series of freebies like Free SMS on the site and facebook page.

ZunguZ is a new Facebook application launched by two South African entrepreneurs that allows you make payments securely via your Facebook account.

The payment app connects banking systems to Facebook’s social graph and thus simplifies the process of transferring money to your friends and withdrawing funds electronically.

ZunguZ works in three simple steps:

1. Enter your mobile number

2. Verify with a PIN sent to your mobile phone

3. Update your details

Users can simply load the ZunguZ application on Facebook, click on their contacts and send money. Recipients would need to create an account to access their funds.

According to Bandwidth Blog, ZunguZ’s co-founder, Rob Sussman said that: “ZunguZ has the potential to influence the purchasing decisions of over 850 million users across the world.”

With ZunguZ, you can pay, receive or transfer money with your contacts on any social network using credit card, PayPal or many other payment methods.

The coolest thing about this is that you don’t pay any transaction charges.

ZunguZ now becomes the first peer-to-peer payment system that allows a Facebook user to pay another Facebook user without transaction fees, without a bank account or an email address.

The company is backed by heavy weight VCs in Silicon Valley such as Justin Rockefeller, Mack Levitt and others and currently has its offices in Palo Alto, where Facebook is based.

A new mobile community for youth corps members in Nigeria called Otondoh has launched just in time for the next Batch of corps members.

The next batch due for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) – Batch C 2011 – will be going for camping from November 15, 2011.

Otondoh wants to help youth corps members serving in different parts of the country to connect and share their experiences during their service year.

With Otondoh, you only share updates with people from your school, camp, LGA and more who can relate with your daily experience.

The mobile network currently has over 600 members and provides tips and resources for corps members.

You can also make new friends and connect with people that you share the same interests with.

You can easily find friends based on their school, current location, LGA and more and get updates from them.

It’s a cool network that can also benefit the NYSC Batch C 2010, Batch B 2011, and Batch A 2011 youth corps members who are currently on primary assignment.

Visit www.telecomscompare.com to get details and also enjoy freebies like Free SMS and Free Airtime.

Mobile browsing has overtaken Desktop browsing in Nigeria for the first time according to latest statistics from StatCounter.

The stats reveal that Internet browsing from mobile phones increased by over 25% between October 2010 and October 2011. On the other hand, Internet browsing from a Desktop PC decreased by over 27% within the past year.

From the report, mobile phones and devices accounted for 52.5% of Internet browsing in Nigeria, while PCs accounted for 47.5% of Internet browsing in Nigeria.

This web trend comes at a time when Nigeria currently has the largest mobile subscriber base in Africa with over 93 million mobile subscribers as at September 2011.

With this latest stats, Nigeria becomes the first African country where mobile browsing overtakes desktop browsing.

Visit www.telecomscompare.com for more details.

Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the decision on whether or not electronic voting would be used for the 2015 elections would be determined by Nigerians, reports Vanguard.

According to Jega,

“Whatever we will do depends on what Nigerians want. We need additional card readers that can be used for electronic voting. We can start piloting electronic voting machines on pilot basis to know if we will be able to use that in 2015.”

Prof. Jega spoke yesterday when he met with members of the House Committee on Electoral Matter.

We wonder why it would have to depend on the decision of the Nigerian people since there’s already a House Committee on Electoral Matter to deliberate and decide on whether or not electronic voting should be used.

Perhaps what is more important at this stage is to perfect the Nigerian electoral process before going digital, as even Jega admitted that the 2011 elections were not perfect.

Elsewhere, there have been issues with the security of e-voting machines, as computer Scientists from California University were able to hack into three electronic voting systems used in California and elsewhere in the United States back in 2008.


visit www.telecomscompare.com for more details.

In an attempt to woo the Nigerian youth, President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his believe that the Nigerian youth can help build the country through valuable ideas just like Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs did.

Earlier, Jonathan had described Apple as a “knowledge based firm” and acknowledged the fact that the company overtook ExxonMobil as the world’s most valuable company.

According to President Jonathan,

Steve Jobs was a citizen of the world. Two months ago on this page, I opined that his idea which became Apple Inc had proved that ideas are more valuable than natural resources seeing as Apple Inc at that time overtook ExxonMobil as the world’s most valuable corporation.

I believe there are many Steve Jobs amongst our youth who would help build our country and add value to human existence. His impact on our world would be remembered many centuries from today.

President Jonathan said this on his Facebook page on October 7, 2011 as a tribute to Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple and one of the world’s greatest innovators who died on October 5, 2011.

But critics would argue that the Nigerian youth needs the right education, an enabling business environment and financial support in order to turn ideas into great products and companies that the world would be envious of.

As it appears, the president’s remarks did not point to his administration’s plans to grow local technology companies that could dominate on the world stage or even make the likes of ‘Steve Jobs’ out of the Nigerian youth.

It is unclear whether or not the recently launched Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) Initiative can produce valuable companies such as Apple Inc.

Telecomscompare is poised to re echo the views and distaste of the average telecoms user in Nigeria, as during the past weeks mails and comments have flooded into the site all reactions to the bad network service by the telecoms providers
It’s like a cup of coffee been passed around by three major service providers, MTN, GLO and AIRTEL , one wonders if it’s a competition of who can offer the worst for the network operators.

With Glo’s service disappearing as fast as the blink of the eyes, in fact subscribers experience no network at all from the early hours of Wednesday 26th of Oct until 1:30pm. Although this didn’t come as much of a surprise as delayed delivery of messages and even pings, inability to put call through, ending of calls within few seconds of call placement as been the other of the day for Glo subscribers.

Just when you think of picking up your Mtn or Airtel line you realise you’re better off without it as subscribers have hardly been able to dial a number once and it goes through. To make matters worse inability to make call on Mtn from 7-10pm is becoming a norm that we wonder if the whole idea of peak and off peak period applies any more as the inability to get a call through during both periods seem the same.

Maybe subscribers can breathe a sigh of relief as Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, issued a warning to Mtn, Airtel and Glo, instructing them to tackle their poor quality of service by end of November or face suspension which would include stoppage from sales of SIM cards. The commission said the three operators have fallen short of the key performance indicators it set to determine operators' level of improvement on quality of service. Part of the Key Performance indicators measured by the Commission included Call Set Up Success Rate, Call Completion Rate, Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate.

The exception of Etisalat from the list was not an over sight as it speaks volume of their level of innovation and outstanding quality of service, especially since they launched their 3g service. In just three (3) years of service ETISALSAT has been phenomenal and if you are a true Nigeria that loves opportunity, you might want to steer their way, kudos to them in their consistency and efficiency, we can now find solace in the one who stands out.

Telecoms Compare will not fall short in keeping you posted with important and timely information of such as it is in our habit to. And you can also make your voice heard by been a member of telecoms compare. Do visit www.telecomcompare.com to get more details, become a member of the platform and enjoy freebies like free airtime and free sms.

Ncc Warns Telecom Firms- Mtn, Airtel And Globacom

Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has issued a warning to three major Nigerian telecom operators, asking them to tackle their poor quality of service by end of November or face suspension which would include stoppage from sales of SIM cards.

The commission said the three operators have fallen short of the key performance indicators it set to determine operators' level of improvement on quality of service.Part of the Key Performance indicators measured by the Commission included Call Set Up Success Rate, Call Completion Rate, Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate.

The commission, however, gave the three operators the benefit of getting their acts right in 30 days, effective from November 1, or risk the big stick which the commission have threatened to wield.

Making more clarification on the issue, Head, Media & Public Relations of NCC, Mr Reuben Muoka, said : "This deadline follows a dismal performance by the three operators on quality of service from the result of an independent monitoring carried out by the commission across the country which showed that all the three operators failed to meet with four key performance indicators that are crucial for quality of service improvements as set by the commission."

"Consequently, the Commission has notified the three operators of its intention to issue a direction that with effect from November 30, 2011, any of the operators that fail to meet the targets will be barred from further sale of its SIM Cards or addition of any new subscriber to its network. Any new SIM card sold, or additional subscriber added to the network in contravention of the direction, will attract a penalty of N1,000,000 ( One Million Naira) per subscriber added".

The Commission in a notice of intention to issue the direction to the operators, also told the three operators that at the expiration of the 30-day deadline, it will strictly enforce the impending direction whose contravention will attract a penalty of N5,000,000 ( Five Million Naira), and additional N500,000( Five Hundred Thousand Naira) per day that such contravention persists.


Apparently to ensure that the operators do not take its threat with levity, the commission said that failure of any of the operators to meet the quality of service targets from November 30, 2011 will attract a fine of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) for every month of failure.


http://allafrica.com/stories/201110260236.html

Talk to the whole Nigeria Airtel community

Airtel Big Family gets bigger with additional fantastic benefits of free calls, SMS and data. Simply make 1 minute of a local call between 8am and midnight to enjoy these benefits for free.
The Airtel big family plan is not limited to a few numbers; it’s available to the entire Airtel family!

You stand to enjoy:
Free mid-night calls between 12.30am and 4.30am daily to all Airtel nos.

40 free On-net SMS (s) between 12.30am and 4.30am.

Free data worth 4MB between 12.30am and 4.30am.

120 free SMS and calls to one registered Airtel number at 10 K/sec all day long.

Just 15k/sec after your first minute at 60k/sec to all Airtel nos.

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Following repeated calls for signed petitions by Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) asking for cybercrime legislation for Nigeria, we’ve learned that a 20-page bill has been drafted by the National Security Adviser’s office.

In case you don’t know, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) have been partnering with Microsoft Nigeria, Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the World Bank Civil Society Program to implement a social campaign asking for cybercrime legislation for Nigeria.

The bill titled, “A Bill for An Act to Protect Nigeria’s Cyberspace and Provide for the Prevention, Detection, Response and Prosecution of Cybercrimes and Related Matters” seeks to provide for measures for the prevention, prohibition, combating of cybercrimes and threats to the cyberspace and to prescribe punishment for cybercrimes.

According to Part 1 of the Draft Bill, it reads:

The objects and scope of this Act are to:

(a) provide an effective, unified and comprehensive legal framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrimes in Nigeria;

(b) enhance cybersecurity and the protection of computer systems and networks, electronic communications; data and computer programs, Intellectual property and privacy rights.

In order to get a firm, yet fair legislation that addresses the cybercrime challenge but does not compromise your rights, PIN is asking you to study the 20-page draft bill and make your own inputs and recommendations to info[at]cybersecurity.gov.ng and copy info[at]pinigeria.org

You can download the 20-page draft of Nigeria’s Cybercrime bill.

Nokia has announced the West African version of its “Create for Millions” global competition that brings consumers and developers together to create applications for Nokia’s Series 40 mobile phones.

Nokia’s Create for Millions challenges consumers to submit their best ideas for the applications they’d like to see on Nokia Series 40 mobile phones.

In addition to a free expenses-paid trip to Nokia World, winning consumer’s can play with their new app on the latest Nokia Series 40 phone given during Nokia World.

In this competition, developers are invited to submit Java and web apps for Nokia Series 40 phones in four categories:

In the Know – News and locally relevant information apps
Fun & Games – Games and entertainment apps
Emotional Closeness – Social networking apps
Access to Knowledge – Life improvement apps, for example education or health



For each of the four contest categories listed above, there will be 10 cash prizes, with a top prize of EUR 50 000 in each category. Top apps in each category win a variety of non-cash prizes such as user experience reviews and app marketing assistance.

In addition, special prizes will be awarded to apps that showcase the best touch feature in an app, the best location-aware app and the best overall Series 40 web app.

From all the entries submitted by West African developers a local jury, with members from Nokia, operator and industry partners, will select three local application winners.

The best application will receive a prize of $5000 (USD) and the all top 3 developers will get an all-expenses paid trip to Nokia World 2011 in London.

To enter Nokia’s Create for Millions contest, you will need to first publish your new Series 40 Java or web app to Ovi Store, and then complete the contest registration form here. The deadline to enter Create for Millions has been extended to 1 November 2011.

Nokia’s Create for Millions provides developers an opportunity to bring Java and web apps to millions of consumers worldwide and win their share of cash and prizes valued at one million euros.

Nokia’s Series 40 phones have experienced more than 35 per cent growth in download volumes in the past two months, making up about a quarter of the total downloads from Nokia’s Ovi Store.

As the largest mobile platform in the world by volume, more than half a billion Nokia Series 40 mobile phones are in consumer’s hands today.

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Research In Motion announced today that a selection of premium apps worth a total value of more than US $100 will be offered free of charge to subscribers.

RIM says it’s an expression of appreciation for its customers’ patience during the recent service disruptions which lasted for three days.

The premium apps such as SIMS 3, Bejeweled, N.O.V.A., Poker 2 and Bubble Bash 2 amongst others will be made available to customers over a period of four weeks beginning Wednesday, October 19 on the BlackBerry App World and will continue to be available until December 31, 2011.

RIm also announced that RIM’s enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free Technical Support.

“Current customers will be offered a complimentary one month extension of their existing Technical Support contract, and customers who do not currently have a Technical Support contract will be offered a one month trial of RIM’s BlackBerry Technical Support Services – Enhanced Support, free of charge,” the company added.

Last week, many customers experienced Blackberry service interruptions and delays over a period of approximately 3 days in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, almost 2 days in Latin America and Canada, and 1 day in the United States.

Blackberry services were returned to normal on Thursday.

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Oh boy. As if yesterday’s BIS outage wasn’t bad enough for RIM, it looks like whatever solution they managed to cook up isn’t quite doing the trick. Reports of yet another outage have begun to make the rounds, and users in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East are once again unable to browse the web, send emails, or fire off BBM messages.

RIM has acknowledged the issue via their official BlackBerryHelp Twitter account by saying that “some areas have messaging delays and impaired browsing.” Their tweet doesn’t make it sound too bad, but representatives from T-Mobile UK, Vodafone Egypt, Bahraini carrier Batelco, and Kenyan operator Safaricom have all confirmed that their customers are being affected. While RIM scrambles for a fix, they may also be facing some issues a bit closer to home. Activist investor Jaguar Financial has been calling on RIM to enact some drastic changes for about a month now, but Reuters reports that the company has managed to gain the support of other BlackBerry shareholders. As it stands, Jaguar claims to have the backing of enough investors to account for 8% of RIM’s total stock.

Jaguar Chief Exec Vic Alboini has mentioned that with the support of those shareholders, Jaguar will be able to demand a shareholder meeting to gain more traction for their vision for RIM. And what exactly is that vision? Jaguar wants RIM to undergo a “value maximization” process that could involve selling RIM’s patents, or even the entire company. What’s more, Jaguar is calling for a shake-up in RIM management that would begin with ousting co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

At this point, it’s beyond crucial for RIM to get their affairs in order, because things are starting to look grim. It certainly wouldn’t be impossible for RIM to turn things around, but these days their road just seems to be getting rougher and rougher.