The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nigerian internet service provider Spectranet, David Venn, has said the company aims to shape the way Nigerian businesses leverage the internet for growth through the deployment of infrastructure. He said this in Lagos at an interactive session with tech journalists attended by TechCity.
“We want to shape the way businesses leverage the internet for growth through efficient pricing and deployment of infrastructure. Our focus is to serve homes and offices, which is why when you ask ‘What matters to you’, as Spectranet would say, ‘It is broadband’,” Venn said.
Evolution of the internet
Venn noted that the internet has evolved rapidly following the advent of the video tools. For instance, he said on Facebook, immediately a user signs in, such user can start viewing the video without clicking on it but he noted that this was not the case about six months ago.
“Netflix has entered the Nigerian market and they are going to be bullish, giving satellite television or stations a run for their money. This calls for more broadband availability,” he said.
According to him, Spectranet is putting the power in the hands of the consumers through broadband provisioning to watch the videos at their convenience.
“There is a lot more happening now with online videos, even on YouTube, but a year ago these where not possible; Nigerians were not getting the satisfaction,” Venn added.
Improvement of services and coverage expansion
The CEO revealed that Spectranet has optimized its network for videos, removing the bottlenecks and offering special services like the “cache video”. The company has also extended its services to several Nigerian cities – Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan and Port Harcourt, with plans to reach even more cities in 2016 – a years it said is its year of growth. But he noted that the company is striving to ensure that as it expands and adds more users to its platform, it is not congesting its network.
To ensure that users enjoy good services, he said Spectranet is building more base stations and partnering with companies that offer tower services – companies such as IHS.
“There is a jinx we want to break, which is starting well, but when the subscribers base increase, network congestion becomes a big issue. As professionals, we are determined to provide capacity to the subscriber with ease. Such ways is by building base stations that will be about 500 meters closer to each subscriber. At the moment we have over 300 base stations in Lagos, and where we are not able to have one at the moment we partner with IHS and others offering tower services,” he said.
Data will rule the game
He predicted that before year 2020, data will be the ruler in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, predicting that voice may become free in Nigeria. According to him, this is already happening with SMS with the advent of Whatsapp and other instant messaging apps.
“Part of the reasons we are excited about the market is that in the next two to three years, data will rule the game, because voice may be offered for free. It is already happening with the Short Message System (SMS) since the advent of WhatsApp,” he said.
