Don’t you dare scroll up! Help yourself for once and read. You are wondering what the heck this is and that it is totally none of your business. In Nigerian parlance, may poverty and suffering not be your portion.
Many of us cannot watch an entire movie on the internet without that nasty buffering thing happening. And these days with the way data flies ‘FIAM’, it’s even more annoying.
So we actually listened to what has been going on in the tech world. And if all things happen well, you should be able to stream the next season of ‘Game of Thrones’ with way less wahala!
Before we get into the gist, what’s this deal first? MTN Nigeria bought Visafone and this included the Spectrum. Spectrum is the life-blood of a telecom operator – it is the frequency that is used to transmit sound and data across the country to our phones and devices. It’s basically jollof rice to an owambe party. On a serious note, spectrum is very essential, we wouldn’t be able to skype or call without it.
Here are the things we found out:
1. Data can be cheaper, like waaaaay cheaper:
I just found out that there was a time that a sim card sold for N20,000! Ehn!
In 2001, a sim card cost an arm and a leg to buy. Only the big boys and socialites could afford a sim card. Imagine what N30,000 could do 17 years ago. But because of competition from other telecom companies stepping up, sim prices began to fall and quickly too.
Now if things go as planned and MTN gets more spectrum, other telecom operators will have to step up and get theirs and do you know what that means for us? Better, faster internet.
2. Someone was robbed: Okay let’s look at it this way. How would you feel if somehow money landed on your lap and you bought an iphone X worth N400,000 (is that the price?). Then it is delivered to you with no touch screen at all. Instead, your iphone X has buttons for pressing!
Or you buy jollof rice, settle down in one corner to eat, you open the bowl and found white rice with no stew or even meat! Do you know the amount of ‘scatter ground’ you will create. You would feel cheated. Extremely so. That is what happened with the deal – MTN bought Visafone then some people said, “Hey, you can’t have the spectrum you bought o! Take the Visafone you bought and leave the one thing you paid money for!”
3. A case of Willing Seller, Willing Buyer: From what I heard, every operator had the opportunity to buy Visafone. But they wouldn’t step up. MTN stepped up and now nobody wants them to get it. What does that look like to you? Visafone was a willing seller, and MTN was a willing buyer. Shikena!
Tobechukwu Okigbo, Corporate Relations Executive, MTN Nigeria
4. The Economy Is Going To Get A Boost: We have been complaining about economic recession and how it really has not ended. Well, if the spectrum does head MTN’s way, other telecommunication companies will have to find alternatives and fast. Who knows what they will come up with. But this will all translate to more available jobs (We have too many qualified graduates sleeping at home) and better communication infrastructure which will lead to more investments. All this and more, means easier life!