There is a hint in the mobile air that we might be on the cusp of a grassroots revolution in the telecom world. But there is a need for caution. Just as we have seen smaller players in the banking and financial world take on services that the major players may overlook or may not be able to handle with intimate care or efficiency, the mobile world is trying to do the same for the underserved in Nigeria.
After 24 years of mobility, the National Communications Commission (NCC) has granted licences to 43 operators who believe that they can disrupt the space for the benefit of millions of Nigerians. But these new companies do not have the girth, cash or infrastructure. They will at once complement and compete with the big telcos known as Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). These Virtual Mobile Network Operators (MVNOs) are babies of MTN, Airtel or Globacom, etc. They will be leasing networks from the big names, and will have to compete with them and help where their services lag.
It is a tricky business, though. The MNOs are not going to see them as partners, even though that is what, on a technical façade, they will be doing. Ordinarily, many would think that there is enough market for everyone, especially since Nigeria still suffers from a digital divide. There are too many areas and people beyond the ken of mobile communications today in rural areas.
But the MVNOs are not going to build networks in those areas. They have neither the money, mandate or capacities. They are lovable parasites of the big names, and cannot venture where the big names cannot reach. The NCC raked in a harvest of $76 billion in licences. This means the NCC has a task after it has fattened on this boon to let the operators enjoy a great lease of life and also help the underserved in the country to reap from a febrile world of to-and-fro.
We have after the nationwide audit over 320 million connected lines with 172 million of them active. And the major players hold the lion’s share. MTN has 90 million subscribers, Airtel 58 million end users and Globacom 21 million customers.
We have had progress over the years. For instance, the connectivity gap between 2013 and 2014 narrowed by 57.97 percent. That implied that the underserved communities shrank from 207 to 87, netting in 13.8 million people, according to a report in ‘The Guardian’. The number of underserved, that is from the point of view of communities without infrastructure, remains over 23 million.
It is hard to define underserved. It is not only in physical space but also in need, and the latter is the more complex. The MVNOs are expected to serve in the cities and urban areas at the beginning, and that will put them in a collision course with their major conduits.
But industry experts expect them to rely on what has always driven profit and market, and that differentiation. It is a template for the imagination and aggressive use of new services. Some of them are already trying to brandish their special offerings, like EMOSIM and Vitel Wireless. Some of them are looking at a new sort of non-physical SIM cards, and others are focusing on international connectivity. We must warn that if they are going to come with services, they focus on what will make the farmer and hunter in rural Enugu State or rural Adamawa connect to the capitalist profits in Port Harcourt or social joy of connecting with another rural fellow across the country.
That is the real meaning of closing the digital divide and enacting a grassroots revolution.
