9mobile: Flap Your Wings And Take To The Skies, You’ve Got Nothing To Lose Except Your Debts. Here’s A Practical Guide
The Oasis Reporters
July 12, 2024
One good thing about technology is that it doesn’t stand on the same spot for way too long. Something must give at some point and upset a balance, at times making the underdog the top dog in the race, outpacing the champion that is not watchful and alert.
Are you ready, 9mobile? Here’s the background gist. The telecoms firm is showing that the test of resiliency has been passed by it and a sign of its gravitas and confidence has shown in the lingering court cases which anchored on who owns the company, between the Bayero family and, Thomas Etu. This has been resolved through an out of court settlement. Thomas Etu is now in charge as chairman.
With the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Technical Officer and other key officers, it is time to hit the ground running.
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The biggest issue that 9mobile faces is that of wide national coverage because they do not have the kind of resources available to the other networks like MTN, Airtel and Glo.
They can decide to ride on the masts of any of the other three dominant networks for a fee, or go to the market to raise funds that would enable them to take to Space and pay for the services of SpaceX in it’s Satellite to cellular scheme belonging to Elon Musk’s company.
Getting real chummy with the company would grant it closeness to one day ask for their own Satellite to be launched for them which should cover West and Central Africa. That would change the dynamics of GSM transmissions and take 9mobile far ahead. After all, Nigerians who often travel to Benin Republic or Niger Republic would easily tell you that they receive Glo and MTN Nigerian networks there.
Nigerian banks like Zenith, Access, GT etc are all over West and Central Africa. That would make it easier to recharge 9mobile networks in those destinations.
The advantage 9mobile has is that it didn’t have the funds that MTN, Glo for instance had at the beginning to lay submarine undersea cables so there is no nostalgia about abandoning what they had expended billions of dollars on, neither do they own a whole lot of telecommunications masts dotted everywhere.
The new direct Satellite to Cellular platform pioneered by SpaceX would have availed sufficiently for them. And with proper funding from a possible Nigerians Diaspora remittances (worth over $19billion per year) by willing investors if given the right sales pitch, with verifiable indices.
Historically speaking, it was seeing new opportunities and catching them quick and early that propelled MTN from its lowly distant no. 3 position in South Africa that had Vodacom South Africa as number one, followed by Telkom SA SOC Limited, then
MTN South Africa as number three, Cell C Limited in fourth place and Saicom South Africa, as number five.
MTN’s bold entry into the Nigerian market gave it the edge to become the biggest network in Africa as a whole.
In Africa, the biggest network is MTN Group, followed by Vodacom, Airtel, Safaricom and Etisalat.
Satellite to Cellular transmission can help 9mobile reach hitherto uncovered areas thereby increasing its numbers, and the outcome can spawn surprising results. Let the network buy into it. It has nothing to lose but everything to gain. And by the way, SpaceX is blasting a satellite into space for Turkey. This is an eye opener to showcase what the private company can do.
Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
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