Nigeria - The Rise And Rise of Text Messaging

The rise and rise of text messaging is not only happened in one country but it is holding an important role for every country nowadays.

The world’s first social media of communication, the text messaging service, has been in existence for 19 years now. Over the years, many people have come to rely on it to communicate with friends and loved ones. Since 2001 when it was adopted in Nigeria following the introduction of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) services, it has revolutionized communication, work and networking, along with fostering a different vocabulary. ADLINE ATILI writes on how 160 characters have transformed our communication pattern

Nineteen years ago today, no Nigerian owned a GSM phone, so Short Messaging Service(SMS)/text messaging was relatively unknown. That was around the period when we had to use landline phones and all its attendant problems. The subscriber base then was less than 400,000.

Text messaging has however, come a long way since the first text message was sent in December 1992, by a 22-year old test engineer for British technology company, Sema Group, Neil Papworth, on the Vodafone network in the United Kingdom.

Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company by revenues and the world’s second-largest by subscribers.

The text message was sent by Papworth, using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone Network who received it on an Orbitel 901 mobile phone.

The message read: “Merry Christmas,” and other than the lack of a punctuation mark, there isn’t much for linguists to complain about.

Today, that same message can be written as, ‘omg!!! Mrry xmas!’ Or what would life be without OMG, LOL, L8r, HBD, LLNP, HNM, and IJN?

While some may finger text messages for causing the demise of verbal communication, for many, the humble text is a quick route out of an unwanted chat.

An Airtel subscriber, Mary, said, as a student, texting has played a large part in her life. To her, though she tries not to text too much, she likes to text if she does not have time or enough airtime for a phone call.

She said: “Using text saves me some cash. Instead of going by voice, I just use text. If you call, the conversation can go on for long and it costs more.

“With texting, you can just say: ‘I’ll be in the library at eight’ and you’re done. If it is to the same network, you may not have to pay if it’s free on-net.”

How text messaging boosts operators’ revenue

Since the first text message, SMS technology has come a long way to dominate the current mobile messaging scene.

In 2010, SMS texts generated $114.6 billion in revenues worldwide, but many believe it’s just the beginning.

Today, text messaging is one of the most widely used mobile services. Over 74 per cent of all mobile phone users worldwide, employ it.

Since the beginning of this year, text messaging has generated $585 billion for operators worldwide and is expected to generate more than $1 trillion over the next seven years.

Experts estimate that mobile networks will earn $726 billion from SMS text messaging over the next five years.

Last year, the estimated volume of text messages/SMS sent was 6.1 trillion or 192,000 SMSs per second.

Since 2006, SMS’ worth has been netted at around $81 billion. So while smartphone applications like the BlackBerry Messenger starts to make up larger slices of the text messaging field, SMS is not giving up its mobile messaging throne anytime soon.

Though text messaging is 19, the technology behind the SMS text is 27-years old, having first been developed in the Franco-German GSM Corporation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert.

Why is text messaging limited to 160 characters?

Friedhelm Hillebrand, a communications researcher, conducted an experiment in 1985.

He sat with his typewriter and started typing random words and questions on a sheet of paper.

He counted the number of letters, punctuation marks and spaces for each line and realised that the number of characters were in and around 160.

That became Hillebrand’s magic number, and he somehow convinced the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) co-workers that 160 characters were more than sufficient for SMS.

Text messaging as marketing campaign tool

In today’s modern marketing world, SMS has become an avenue many businesses find great use for; especially with the popularity of promos, campaigns and bulk messaging which allows businesses and individuals send text messages at reduced price.

It is now commonplace for operators to ask subscribers to participate in promos by sending some words to ‘short codes,’ which are five to six digits phone numbers used for text message marketing campaigns.

Weak points

Despite being very successful, however, SMS services still face challenges globally. Security and vulnerability have been one of the major issues of SMS.

It has been used severally as a lethal weapon of threat and intimidation by criminally-minded individuals, prompting the Nigerian telecom industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to issue a directive to all telecom subscribers and network operators to get SIM cards registered.

The 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations of Nigeria were regrettably marred by bombings at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, last year.

The explosions left a good number of people dead with several others severely injured. Vehicles were not spared in the blasts as a number of them were destroyed.

About nine people were said to be arrested in connection with the bombings. When their mobile phones were said to be screened, some incriminating text messages were found, which pointed the finger at some individuals behind the bombings.

Only recently, Reuters reported how SMS text messages revealed how Nigerian politicians sponsor members of radical Islamic sects responsible for dozens of shootings and bombings across the country.

The report stated that Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the SSS, revealed in a press briefing how politicians pay extremists to send threatening text messages to judges and rival politicians.

One other thing is its unreliability, especially when the service is used for emergency purposes.

Several reported cases have shown that around one per cent to five per cent of text messages are lost in the network system, never to be received by the recipient.

But despite all these, SMS/text message has always been the most preferred mode of communication especially in emerging markets. Experts say its being cheap has been the main reason for its popularity.

Critics of the technology contend that it is destroying the brain cells of our youths, and some adults too.

Adeolu Adeyinka, a telecom subscriber, detests the ‘texting’ system, especially the adopted texting language.

He told The Nation: “I can only laugh at people who sit and text non-stop. When I see teenagers texting like mad, it doesn’t bother me so much but when grown men and women do it, I just wonder.

“The worst part is when you are having intelligent conversation with someone on the Internet and they only write in ‘texting format.’ It’s annoying and much as I accept text messages from my kids, I’ve warned them I won’t respond to messages with those texting words and phrases.

“I don’t like trying to decipher what those dumb words mean. I mean, it’s gradually destroying our youths.

“The other day, a friend of mine who happens to be a WAEC official told of how candidates have been so wrapped up in the texting language that they do not know how to write a single sentence in an essay without chipping in those dumb words two to three times.

“It’s really pathetic. I think the youths should be able to draw the line between sending text messages and writing an examination that can make or mar your future.”

Source by Adline Atili on Dec 15, 2011

Nigeria - Banks Set For Cashless Banking

There are many banks nowadays are using SMS for instant transaction alerts.

In Nigeria, almost everything is paid for in cash. In supermarkets, cheques are hardly acceptable, and when accepted, delivery of goods and services are only completed when the beneficiary gets value from the bank. So, Nigeria has remained a cash-based economy, despite growth in the banking sector and billions of naira invested in electronic banking over the years.

But all these may change if a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy limiting daily cash withdrawal and lodgments to N150,000 by individuals and N1 million by companies, effective June 1, 2012.

The apex bank took this step to curb dominance of cash in the economy with its implication for cost of cash management to the banking industry, security and money laundering. However, the policy did not come to many banks with proven track record performance in e-payment by surprise.

Already, First Bank, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Wema Bank and Diamond Bank, among others have developed tested and viable products/services tailored towards effective management of cashless banking.

For instance, at First Bank, the First Pay, a web-based payment platform designed and developed to allow customers directly effect payment instructions from their offices online real time in a very secure and efficient manner is provided. Since the First Pay service is available over the web, payments and authorisations can be done regardless of location. The product is most suitable for clients who carry out bulk payments against their accounts in form of Salary Payment, Vendor/Supplier Payment, e-Dividend, Pensions among others regardless of account bank. It gives the corporate the power to execute their payment instructions without first sending a physical instruction to the bank and waiting for the bank to effect the instructions.

With this service, customers can check their account balances anywhere, anytime; view consolidated bank account balances across banks; secure e-cheques as well as issue and upload e-cheques for Vendor/Supplier payments among other benefits. The bank has also introduced First Alert to give customers instant notification of every transaction that takes place in their accounts through e-mail or Short Messaging Service (SMS). It comes as transaction alert, trade alert, and first guard.

Also, trade alert gives customers instant notification of every stage of their trade finance from the point of capturing Form ‘M’ to the stage of establishing their Letter of Credit (LC) while FirstMobile banking is a network independent mobile phone solution that provides financial services and other value added services using the mobile phone and a prepaid card.

It can be effected using network services, such as MTN, Airtel, Glo, Starcomms and enables users check their balances and transaction details, authorise payment verify account , electronic fund transfer among other services from home. First Online, an internet banking service simply requires that a beneficiary has a savings or current account with the bank to enable him check account balances, see account activity, including uncleared effects among others.


Source: Posted in thenationonlineng by Collins Nweze on 26th October 2011

Nigeria - Bulk SMS Resellers Price War in Nigeria

I love this article posted by naijaecash.com to urge NIGERIAN to be smart in choosing reseller that offer QUALITY service and not purely looking at PRICING! Price is Not Everything!!

Buy Bulk SMS for as low as N1.xx…. I guess that is the latest catchy phrase in Nigeria. It is quite interesting that many Bulk SMS resellers are trying to woo Nigerian consumers via rock bottom pricing. There is a serious price war going on now as they try to outdo each other by offering rock bottom price for their bulk sms services. I guess if it were possible, some will even offer free SMS just to snatch customers from their competitors. Well, that strategy is not working for now. At least, it has not made me change from my present service provider. Honestly speaking, if someone somewhere think this is the way to do bulk sms reselling business, they better have a rethink. Nigerian consumers are not fools!

Price is Not Everything

Of what benefit is a service that is cheap but inefficient? It is economically unwise to spend money on a service simply because it appears cheap! If the service can’t produce the expected result, then it is money wasted irrespective of how cheap it is. Why should I buy SMS at the rate of N1.00 only to discover that messages sent are never delivered to the intended recipients or it gets delivered when it is no longer relevant. Someone sent an SMS that is meant to wish a loyal client happy birthday but delivery of the message was delayed until 2days after the birthday! I’ll say that is a crappy service, irrespective of how cheap the service was. I’ll rather pay double to get the message delivered at the right time.

So many Bulk SMS resellers are not getting their acts well. You must not be the cheapest in the market to be the most patronized. There are other qualities that can make you stand out in the crowd. My bulk sms service provider is not the cheapest, but they know how to deliver quality services. ;-)

Rolls Royce Is Not Cheap

Just think about Rolls Royce. Rolls Royce manufacturing team are not trying to increase or maintain their market share by reducing their price to compete with the likes of Nissan. Instead, they strive to improve on the performance of their model and the luxury it affords the buyers. Irrespective of how low another car manufacturer may place their price, lovers of Rolls Royce won’t be wooed!

Nigerian Consumers are wise

As an entrepreneur, you need to do proper homework before using low price as a bait to increase your market share. If your service is poor and your customer support service is non-existent or inefficient, then lowering your price will do no good. You should focus your attention first on improving your service before inviting more clients to try your service.

Bulk SMS resellers compete in an international market

Price war gimmick is a common strategy of the Nigerian gsm telecom operators. Nigerian consumers no that the price war is just a gimmick because it is always accompanied by crappy services. The fact that the gsm operators seem to be getting away with this doesn’t mean the consumers are fools. So never conclude that the same trick will work for bulk sms resellers. Unlike gsm telecom operators who have the advantage of operating in a closed local market, bulk sms resellers are actually operating in a highly competitive international market.

So my advice to all those wannabe Bulk SMS resellers out there is that they go improve on their services . You will only be relevant in the market by offering quality service. Nigerians online won’t mind patronizing a bulk sms reseller who operates from the moon as long as the service is reliable. Even though I am proudly Nigerian, I don’t subscribe to crappy services. The bulk sms price war strategy is not working, think of something else. Cheers.

Nigeria - 108 millions of GSM mobile subscribers in Nigeria

Nigeria has 108 millions of GSM mobile subscribers based on 2010 data. So, you can see the huge market for mobile messaging service. If you wish to enter into his bulk SMS business, you will have to move fast!