The long awaited first ever 4g network in Nigeria’s telecom industry finally came onboard under the brand “Ntel”, prior to its lunch witnessed an aggressive marketing and promotions heralding what could be seen as the game changer in internet connectivity in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians bought into it in anticipation of what it could mean to be a 4g network user, this is obviously as a result of the freebies Ntel promised its first 100,000 customers, first they will enjoy free calls for life as well as free browsing data for some months.
The benefits of being among the first 100,000 Ntel user is so tempting that many can afford to queue for hours just to register on the network, but what they did not tell subscribers is that the free calls promised can only happen among the first 100,000 subscribers.
Technically most subscribers are from different backgrounds and heterogeneous, making it very slim to actually enjoy the free calls. In this network you would make fewer voice calls than normal because the minutes you can call is attached to the data you buy.
According to their data rate, three days of unlimited browsing costs N1000, after downloading 3gb that will be all for the day, also you can only pay two times in a week, which is about N2000, in four weeks which is 28days you will spend N8000, making the network for the rich and those who are conversant with 4g technology.
It should be noted that the sim is only for 4g phones with LTE technology, and you can only register one simcard with one ID, meaning that if you reserve lines you would have to go with 4 different IDs.
Marketing this service to retail subscribers who intend to use the line for personal use is counter-productive as can be seen, it could have been an honest marketing strategy making it clear that the service is best suited for heavy data users and for office use.
Although it is a fact that some Nigerians are comfortable with luxury and extravagance, but yet very many can only spend within their income which will make it difficult for an average user to pay 8,000 naira phone bills monthly.
Going by the promotional efforts made so far by Ntel, it did not honestly state the true features of the 4g network, in the coming months the true picture of using this service will be clearer as subscribers will have to review their performance.
The Simcard is billed to be distributed in three states of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, but only Abuja is currently distributing the Ntel lines.