When Will NCC Save Nigerians From 9Mobile? By Adekunle Adekoya

TODAY, my radar is on one of the telecommunications networks operating in the country. Right now, we have four. These are Airtel Nigeria, MTN, Glo, and the fourth, EMTS (Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service), now trading as 9Mobile. To be candid, the company has had quite some turbulent moments in the history of its operations in Nigeria.

Initially powered by Mubadala Investments of the United  Arab Emirates, UAE, and Nigeria partners, the company started off on a sound note, launching what it called Eco SIM and endearing itself to Nigerians as the first network to offer special numbers to Nigerians as their mobile numbers through the 0809uchoose campaign. While that campaign lasted, prospective subscribers were offered the right to choose their numbers on the network. It was a marketing success. And that was when the company knew its business. These days, there is very little to suggest that the company is still interested in the GSM business.

Anyway, in April 2013, Etisalat Nigeria announced it would invest about $650 million to expand its network, ostensibly to drive higher market growth, with much of the investible funds coming from a consortium of banks. When you run into a storm, you begin to look like you don’t know what you’re doing; you rest your chin on the palm of one hand and keep asking yourself just how you got things so wrong. By March 2017, Nigeria’s telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, pushed for talks to halt takeover attempts by Etisalat’s creditors and reschedule its outstanding  loan. Later that year, in July, the UAE investors, Etisalat, withdrew from the Nigerian telecoms market after its debt was not repaid or rescheduled. The rump of the company promptly renamed itself and continued trading as 9mobile.

Further down the line, 9mobile, when last I checked, has a Unified Access Service License from the Nigerian Communications Commission since 2007 which enables the telco to provide Fixed Telephony (wired or wireless), Digital Mobile Services, International Gateway Services, and National/Regional Long Distance Services in addition to spectrum assignments in the 900 and 1800  MHz bands.

Following the company’s financial woes, in 2018, an investor by the name of Teleology Holdings emerged in a bid process managed by Barclays Africa, and paid a $50 million deposit to buy 9mobile, with a 90-day window to pay $450 million to complete the acquisition, telecoms regulator said.

Teleology was picked as preferred bidder for 9mobile, the NCC announced, following a bid process arranged by Barclays Africa. But that did not end the woes. Eventually, Teleology was ousted from 9Mobile as it failed to pay up, and the telco’s problems seem to have been mounting since.

Latest subscriber data from telecoms regulator, NCC shows that as of October 2024, 9Mobile has a paltry 3,389,897 subscribers on its network, or just 2.15 per cent of 157,600,321 subscribers. It cannot fail to be so. Not a few subscribers to the telco’s services complain and moan about lack of signal, sometimes for as long as two or three days at a stretch. I am also in a position to corroborate this. As a reporter who was once very active on the telecommunications beat, I had and still have SIM cards from all the four networks.

I can attest, without fear of equivocation, that signal on my 9Mobile Sim disappears for as long as anybody in the network’s technical operations unit cared to see whether they’re on air or not. As I write this (Thursday evening), there has been no signal on my 9Mobile SIM since Wednesday; it may remain so till next Monday. I have stopped worrying about it. Whenever they wake up, the signal will return. To stop wasting my hard-earned money, I have simply stopped recharging the line. I noticed this ugly trend sometime last year, and that was when I last recharged. Many friends and acquaintances who subscribe to 9Mobile have also ported out of the network, or simply pulled their SIM out of their devices and opted for the services of more serious telcos.

This is where I think the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, as the industry regulator, has left Nigerians in the lurch. NCC owes it a duty to ensure that all telcos, including 9Mobile, keep serving Nigerians. This is because in many of our towns and cities, at every major bus stop, roadside vendors using public address systems and loudspeakers continue to ask passers-by to buy 9Mobile SIM cards. Why should people be enjoined to buy the cards for a network whose signal is off the air for as long as 48 or 72 hours at a stretch, after loading airtime on the SIM card?

Apart from that, given the unemployment situation in the country, I am of the opinion that keeping 9Mobile alive will do all of us more good than watching it slowly asphyxiate to death. The economy will simply be the worse for it and it will be a big blow to the telecoms sector. NCC, as the industry regulator, is hereby tasked to initiate action towards ensuring that the telco does not die. In addition, I do not think it is a bad thing if other healthier telcos take over the ailing operator with a view to achieving a turnaround. Over to you, NCC, Airtel, MTN, and Glo. TGIF.