The mobile phone has evolved from a voice apparatus to a multi-functional device that offers increasingly sophisticated applications. No other device has come close to the sophistication, the versatility and the power of the mobile phone.

Convergent technologies have now combined the mobile phone and various services – web, email, mobile TV, FM radio, card reader, camera, mobile computer, e-books, music player, voice recorder, flash drive, games, and GPS navigation, among others.

Actually, there’s no point calling it “phone” any longer. Perhaps just “mobile” will do.

The rest of this page provides useful information about mobile technology in general and mobile networks and services in Nigeria, more specifically.

When Did Mobile Phone Services take off in Nigeria?

The first mobile cellular services began in 1993 with Mtel, but was elitist and restricted in every way.

Later, other CDMA operators offered limited mobile phone services as a small segment of their bouquet of services.

Widespread mobile services however took off in August 2001 when Zain (then Econet) launched the first commercial GSM services in Nigeria. In a few years, Nigeria was toasted everywhere as one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world. Nigeria has since overtaken South Africa to become Africa’s largest mobile market.

Mobile Networks in Nigeria

1. MTN – GSM/UMTS/HSDPA networks; DVB-H – 30,830,000 active subscribers – www.mtnonline.com
2. GloMobile – GSM/UMTS/HSDPA networks – 17,042,374 active subscribers – www.gloworld.com
3. Zain – GSM/UMTS/HSDPA networks – 14,776,856 active subscribers – www.ng.zain.com
4. Visafone – CDMA/EVDO networks – 2,751,795 active subscribers – www.visafone.com.ng
5. Etisalat – GSM network – 2,626,125 active subscribers – www.etisalat.com.ng
6. Multilinks Telkom – CDMA/EVDO networks – 2,058,104 active subscribers – www.multilinks.com
7. Starcomms – CDMA/EVDO networks – 1,656,868 active subscribers – www.starcomms.com
8. ZoomMobile – CDMA/EVDO networks – 1,098,668 active subscribers – www.zoomnigeria.com
9. Mtel – GSM network – 258,520 active subscribers

**All active subscribers figures as at December 2009
Source: NCC

Total Active Mobile Lines as at April 2010

• GSM: 69,649,955
• CDMA: 7,745,377

Total: 77, 395, 332
Source: NCC

Glossary of GSM Terms & Data Speeds

Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. Below are the data services currently available on GSM networks in Nigeria.

• GPRS – General Packet Radio Service; a 2G standard (theoretical top speed: 115 Kbit/s)
• EGPRS – Enhanced General Packet Radio Service; a 2G standard (theoretical top speed: 384 kbit/s). EGPRS is popularly known as EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution)
• 3G/UMTS – Universal Mobile Telecommunications System; a 3G standard; theoretical top speed: 384 kbps
• 3.5G/HSDPA – High Speed Data Packet Access; a 3G standard; theoretical top speed: 7.2 mbps
• DVB-H – Digital Video Broadcast – Handheld. A mobile broadcast technology that allows for the digital terrestrial broadcast of live television channels to a mobile phone.

Glossary of CDMA2000 Terms & Data Speeds

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a competing mobile technology to GSM. Below are the data services currently available on CDMA networks in Nigeria.

• 1x – theoretical top speed: 153 kbps
• EVDO Rev. 0 – Evolution-Data Optimized; theoretical top speed: 2.4 Mbit/s
• EVDO Rev. A – Evolution-Data Optimized; theoretical top speed: 3.1 Mbit/s

Nigerian GSM Frequencies

If roaming to Nigeria, or intending to import GSM mobile phones into the country, be sure to note the following specifications required for the Nigerian market:

• 2G network: GSM 900 / 1800
• 3G network: HSDPA 2100

3G in Nigeria

In 2007, four applicants were successful in obtaining a 10MHz lot each in the 2GHz band for third generation (3G) mobile services. The successful operators were:

1. Alheri Engineering
2. Celtel Nigeria
3. GloMobile
4. MTN Nigeria Communications

In early 2008, GloMobile launched the first commercial 3G service on their UMTS/HSPA network, followed closely by MTN.

Mobile TV

At the moment, only MTN offers mobile TV (DVB-H) services in the country.

Mobile Internet in Nigeria

Download our Guide to Mobile Internet in Nigeria.

Where to buy Mobile Phones

Pay the Mobility Nigeria phone store a visit to order your mobile phone and have it delivered to you.

Check your Mobile Browser User Agent & IP Address

Check your mobile browser’s User Agent and your network’s IP address.

What is a Smartphone?

A smartphone is a mobile device with voice and data capabilities and which runs an operating system that allows the installation and running of third party native applications.

Some of the available smartphone operating systems are:

1. Symbian
2. BlackBerry
3. iOS
4. Android
5. Windows Mobile / Windowsphone
6. WebOS
7. BadaOS

Mobile Data Settings

# Account Name: MTN GPRS
# Access Point Name (APN): web.gprs.mtnnigeria.net
# Username: web
# Password: web
# IP Address: 10.199.212.2
# Port: 9201 (for WAP) or 8080 (for HTML)

# Account Name: Zain Mobile Internet
# Access Point Name (APN): internet.ng.zain.com
# Username: internet (or blank)
# Password: internet (or blank)
# IP Address: none
# Port: none

# Account Name: Glo High Speed Internet
# Access Point Name (APN): gloflat
# Username: flat
# Password: flat
# IP Address: none
# Port: none

# Account Name: Etisalat
# Access Point Name (APN): etisalat
# Username: none
# Password: none
# IP Address: none
# Port: none

Free eBooks

Guide to Mobile Internet in Nigeria (3rd Revision)

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