Presenter and Tech Blogger, lays down some useful advice to ntel

Recently, one of my guests on Tech Trends on Channels TV said and I quote, “doing business in Africa is harder, but doing business in Nigeria is hardest”. She stressed “hardest” in a way tha I cannot truly express in writing.

I can say for sure that she is on point. Being in business in this period of uncertainty has been one roller coaster experience for a lot of big and small businesses. Can this be one of the reasons some businesses are struggling to provide the services they do provide?

Like many digitally connected minds, my life, more or less, depends on data. In fact, data rank high on the list of my priorities and on a good month, 100GB of data is a good starting point.

You can, therefore, imagine that I have been, (and still is in some cases), customer to a number of Internet service providers and this cuts across all the popular and unpopular ones.

The latest guys I decided to join is Ntel and you bet what attracted me primarily is the promise that it is unlimited, but how unlimited is this unlimited? I am honestly not sure about that, but quite frankly, I think Ntel should do more than just talk.

Let me use this opportunity to share a few thoughts with the Ntel team.

More Transparency
Ntel claims that customers get unlimited data during the period of validity. Can I beat my chest to say that is what I enjoy? The answer is a “no”. I think whatever Ntel is offering is shrouded in secrecy and the simple reason is that, Ntel does not allow you to know how much data you have consumed at any point in time. It is, therefore, difficult to know if you get throttled after a particular threshold. In fact, I feel this is what happens, based on my observation, but I cannot prove it because, usage is completely hidden.

I have written to Ntel support a couple of times to ask for my usage and they would respond by asking why I am bothered about my usage for an unlimited plan? Such responses are quite narrow, if you ask me. Unlimited or not, I have a right to know what I have consumed at any point it in time.

I do not even need to write to Ntel support to know this. It is as simple as logging into the backend of my account to see it. Ntel needs to upgrade!

Improve Quality of Service
This demand is not to Ntel alone because, many other providers are also guilty as charged. As an Ntel customer, however, I wish to direct this to them, especially, if they want me to remain a paying customer. In the last two weeks, I have written to their customer service multiple times, complaining about slow Internet speed or outright downtime.

Yes, there have been time I enjoyed the service, non-stop, but quite frankly, it is not stable yet. Maybe, Lagos operation is still work-in-progress for them? Yes, this is a possibility, but as a customer, I want the best as promised.

Time will tell if I will retain Ntel as one of my providers or give them a red card. Just as I was editing this article, Yomi Adegboye of Mobilityarena.com published an article on the same issue and he mentioned Ntel. One would wonder what really the problem is with this latest entrant to service provision. Maybe it is time to go fibre. once and for all?

These are my thoughts as a thought leader and a customer of Ntel. I only hope it leads to improved quality of service?

By CHUKWUEMEKA FRED AGBATA (CFA) Founder, www.CFAtech.ng & Co-producer/Presenter,Tech Trends on Channels Television