By Nnamdi Ojiego

Mr. Ismail Olubiyi, Managing Director, Geoidtel

The problem of network congestion and poor quality of service being experienced by Nigerians has been attributed to the inability of network providers to catch up with the subscribers to their services.

This was the view of Mr Ismail Olubiyi, Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Geoid Telecommunication Ltd.

According to him, network congestion occurs when operator’s capacity to provide efficient services is being overwhelmed by demand for such services.

He explained that the network providers in the onset underestimated the demand of Nigerians for ICT services and the capability of Nigerians to pay for such services, making them to play catch up with subscribers in terms of service delivery.

Olubiyi who interacted with the Vanguard Hi-tech in his office at Gbagada, Lagos, also spoke on the gains of deregulation of telecoms sector, the role of regulatory agencies, and the need for government to continue to provide enabling environment for investors, among others. Excerpts:

Some say broadband is the future of Nigeria’s economy, do you agree? Why and how?

I quite agree that broadband is the future of Nigeria’s economy. I think it is obvious given the increased penetration of wireless devices in Nigeria. While there is no readily available statistics to ascertain the level or depth of internet penetration, a greater number of Nigerians now have wireless devices such as the BlackBerry, i-Pads and so on.

Due to the increased segmentation of services by internet service providers to accommodate the mass market, or what I would refer to as the SOHO (small office, home office), a greater number of homes and small medium enterprises now have access to the internet as a result of affordability.

Service providers such as Geoid Telecommunications and telecom companies are also providing miniature infrastructure to aid internet access. As such, Nigerians truly have internet on the go. These are a few factors which in my view are contributing to increased broadband penetration in Nigeria.

Do you think government is doing enough (investment wise)to make broadband services available to Nigerians particularly, those in rural areas?

If you ask me, government has no business in business. I think the privatization of government owned establishments is evidence of the fact that government should not delve into production of goods and services. Cases of government companies that have gone into or almost going into oblivion abound.

Where is Nigeria Airways? Or NITEL? Government should at best confine itself to creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. Government should focus on providing enabling infrastructure, improve the security situation in the country and so on.

But I must commend the government for strengthening regulatory agencies such as the Nigerian Communications Commission. Also worthy of note is the fact that the government has so far not interfered in the affairs of the NCC.

What should the govt, professionals and stakeholders in the IT industry do in this regard?

Government should on its part create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, as I mentioned earlier. It should not delve into business. Professionals and stakeholders should invest more in the provision of infrastructure to increase broadband ubiquity.

They should also invest in taking fiber Optic to as many cities as it has been done with GSM base stations. With this, fiber network availability in every cities will provide the opportunity to connect the whole country.

And once that is possible, everyone can then pass their traffic through it. This also will give fibre optic capacity availability for improved broadband and

voice services opportunities in Nigeria.

Don’t you think the launching of submarine cables by MainOne and Glo 1 is part of investors’ efforts to invest in infrastructure?

Yes, it’s part of it. However, MainOne and Glo 1 submarine cables were meant to lead to reduction in the prices of broadband through large capacity availability with very low latency. Asides from reduced prices, it was also meant to lead to fast internet services as well as cheaper phone calls. But whether these factors have been met is another thing.

As an internet service provider, ISP, what is your take on the network congestion and poor quality of service by the internet and mobile service providers?

Network congestion is usually caused by operator’s capacity to provide efficient services being overwhelmed by consumers demand for such services. This has varied interpretations, and can be caused by multiple factors.

The Nigerian case is quite peculiar. The network operators who commenced operations then underestimated the demand of Nigerians for ICT services and the capability of Nigerians to pay for such services. So, for a couple of years, operators were actually trying to play catch up with Nigerians in terms of service delivery. The more operators increased their capacity to accommodate more Nigerians on their network, the more Nigerians subscriber to the services.

I think that situation is still prevalent today. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Nigeria has a total subscriber base of close to 91 million as at March. This shows that growth has been consistent.

But I think that service has really improved, given the challenges that operators have faced in terms of providing service. Network congestion automatically leads to poor quality service.

But there are some other factors such as destruction of infrastructure of companies rendering these services. Some companies also try to advertise services which they are not capable of providing, thus they are unable to meet customer satisfaction.

Talking about positive contributions, in what way is your company adding value to the Nigerian economy?

In so many ways. Geoid Telecommunications Nigeria is a provider of affordable broadband internet services via Very Small Aperture Termina, VSAT. We have a wide array of affordable service plans for various market segments.

These plans cater to the broadband requirements of home users, small and medium scale businesses; as well as the enterprise and government segments. Our world-class telecommunications offering is connecting rural and other hard-to-serve areas thereby giving many Nigerians access to internet.

Another way my organisation is adding value is through job creation. Geoidtel has given job opportunities and man power development to many Nigerians who in their own little quota through payment of taxes and other levies have contributed to the growth of the economy.

Meanwhile, asides Nigeria, Geoidtel has coverage in other West African countries including Cameroon, Benin Republic, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Ghana etc.

we also cover Guinea and Senegal where we already have country resellers program. In the nearest future, we intend to spread our services to other parts of Africa.