Isn't it interesting how over the years things have changed? Remember the days of NITEL and NIPOST and how popular land-lines was as well as posting letters to friends and loved ones in other parts of the country? How we used to throng cyber cafes to browse the internet? We used to pay like 500 naira for an hour and sometimes we expressed our frustrations to the owner when the internet was unbearably slow. I used to think it was a deliberate attempt to get one to spend longer hours. Now those cyber cafes are a shadow of their former state. The once lucrative business and huge source of income to many business owners has been reduced to an avenue to print documents, scan and make photocopies. With the growth of internet networked phones, handy modems and Wi-Fi access, cyber cafes have obviously lost the battle in a warring environment spurred on by the new mobile generation. Millions of Nigerians own internet enabled mobile phones and network providers are smiling to the bank. For many, their mobile phone is the first thing they see when they wake up and the last thing before going to bed. It is like an extension of our hands. A worthy companion. Nigerian entrepreneurs are waking up to the fact that there's a huge potential for internet business. Just not in the way it used be. We can almost say goodbye to cyber cafes. Nigeria with a population of 170 million is the fastest growing internet and mobile phone market in Africa.Companies like Oxygen Broadband are tapping in; providing Wi-Fi internet services at restaurants, cinemas, outdoor bars and event centres just the way it is in other developed countries. Users pay about 3 dollars for daily unlimited access across any of the hotspots. Oxygen currently has over 27,000 registered users in Nigeria's mega city Lagos. Hopefully these hotspots can spread so anywhere you find yourself, you can have access. The world is constantly evolving, new ideas, innovations....... there's a lot more things yet to be discovered.
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Sunday 27 July 2014
NIGERIA'S CYBER CAFE BUSINESS GRADUALLY GOING INTO EXTINCTION
Isn't it interesting how over the years things have changed? Remember the days of NITEL and NIPOST and how popular land-lines was as well as posting letters to friends and loved ones in other parts of the country? How we used to throng cyber cafes to browse the internet? We used to pay like 500 naira for an hour and sometimes we expressed our frustrations to the owner when the internet was unbearably slow. I used to think it was a deliberate attempt to get one to spend longer hours. Now those cyber cafes are a shadow of their former state. The once lucrative business and huge source of income to many business owners has been reduced to an avenue to print documents, scan and make photocopies. With the growth of internet networked phones, handy modems and Wi-Fi access, cyber cafes have obviously lost the battle in a warring environment spurred on by the new mobile generation. Millions of Nigerians own internet enabled mobile phones and network providers are smiling to the bank. For many, their mobile phone is the first thing they see when they wake up and the last thing before going to bed. It is like an extension of our hands. A worthy companion. Nigerian entrepreneurs are waking up to the fact that there's a huge potential for internet business. Just not in the way it used be. We can almost say goodbye to cyber cafes. Nigeria with a population of 170 million is the fastest growing internet and mobile phone market in Africa.Companies like Oxygen Broadband are tapping in; providing Wi-Fi internet services at restaurants, cinemas, outdoor bars and event centres just the way it is in other developed countries. Users pay about 3 dollars for daily unlimited access across any of the hotspots. Oxygen currently has over 27,000 registered users in Nigeria's mega city Lagos. Hopefully these hotspots can spread so anywhere you find yourself, you can have access. The world is constantly evolving, new ideas, innovations....... there's a lot more things yet to be discovered.
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