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Internet Taking Off
Nigeria is getting online with the help of new technologies and infrastructure
Nigeria’s Internet user base is growing fast: according to the International Telecommunication Union, from 10 million people online at the end of 2007, or 7.2% of the population, the country had 23.9 million Internet users at the end of 2009, making up 16.1% of the population.
Although little data is available on current broadband subscriber numbers, it is expected that as new technologies including mobile broadband gain in popularity and greater bandwidth becomes available, 100% of Internet connections will be broadband by 2013.
As the number of people online has grown, the market has consolidated, so that from 400 ISPs in 2007, the country now has around 150. The existing providers are introducing new technologies and new infrastructure, which should see the price of Internet access drastically lowered and thus increase the user base significantly.
Underwater Infrastructure
Until 2009, national fixed-line provider Nitel was the major gatekeeper for international bandwidth provision to Nigeria with its SAT-3 undersea cable, which it holds along with 35 other providers from around the world. In July 2009, damage to the cable caused massive disruption to Internet access across the country, with 70% of connections affected. But a series of new submarine cables in the offing will prevent such incidents in the future, and in introducing competition and vastly increased broadband capacity to the sector, the advent of the new cables should see Internet prices drop by as much as 90% in the near future.
In September 2009, the Glo-1 cable, owned by Second National Operator and mobile market number two, Globacom, made land at Lagos, and started rolling out services at the end of 2009. The Main One cable, owned by Nigerian firm Main Street Technologies, stretches from Portugal to Nigeria and Ghana and arrived in Nigeria in June 2010, beginning operations in July 2010. In October 2009, mobile market leader MTN announced that it was joining with ten other operators in the West African Cable Systems (WACS) cable project, connecting South Africa, Nigeria and the UK; it is set to commence operations in December 2010. France Telecom’s African Coast to Europe (ACE) cable will connect Nigeria to France when it starts operating in 2011.
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