Our passion for affordable telephony

Background
ReltelWireless was incorporated in November 2001 and commenced operation in 2002. The full names are Reliance Telecommunication Limited. We are trading as ReltelWireless. We are involved in providing fixed wireless telephony services in Nigeria.We've got a unified license, which now makes us a national carrier in all ramifications. We have a national spectrum to cover all 36 states of Nigeria and

Abuja; we are about the only CDMA company in Nigeria that has paid up fully for a national spectrum. Right now, we have operations in about ten cities in Nigeria; we plan to go to about 31 more. We plan to cover about 51 cities within this stage of our expansion programme. We as well have voice and data services.

Survival strategy

The industry is growing and blossoming but we believe that the telecom market in Nigeria is still large and uncovered; which means there is an opportunity for any player to get in there, do what you have to do as far as you have your strategy and focus right. The presence of other operators does not in any way cow us; we have our own strategy, we put it into play and that is what is working for us. We don't know what the others are doing but right here, we've got something that gives us an edge.
Competition will always be there and it is getting tougher by the day. Before, it used to be ReltelWireless versus the other PTOs but today, with the advent of the unified license regime, it is wide open. Even the GSM operators are now our competitors. So, we are not afraid of any competition. All we know is that we have our key focus areas; we focus on the customer, we focus on delivering high quality and affordable telecom services to our customers.
One thing that carves us out from other operators is that we are not here for just money as most of our subscribers would attest to. We are concerned first with offering services; we are secondly concerned with making sure that every Nigerian no matter your social or economic status, you have access to telecommunication. So, that is the major driving force for us. In ReltelWireless, the people come first. And that is why we try to change the face of competition anywhere we go. In any city where we operate, once we get in there, people know that we've come in because we reduce the acquisition cost of our phone. We also have the best competitive rates for airtime as well as quality services. All these stand us out in ReltelWireless.

Cost slashing pedigree

Up till today, as we speak, Reltel phones are the most affordable. There is no operator that offers you the kind of deal that we offer you in terms of telephone acquisition. Go and look at it, we have phones for as low as N2000 and this is running currently in our promo. This is heavily subsidized, and this is what we do here. We bring in the phones and get them subsidized so that everybody could have access to high quality phones.
While other operators are busy trying to make money on the hardware and airtime, we say the most important thing is that Nigerians have this phones at affordable rates. We know that the money will come at the long run; we are not here to make quick bucks and leave, we are here for the long run. So, that is why we try to invest in the company by subsidizing heavily for phones.
You will recall that in the brief period the VAT rate went to 10% and other operators were jacking up call rates, we did not adjust our rate. We did not feel it was right to start pushing up costs just like that. So, I still maintain that right here, we offer the very best on even our call rates. Right now, we have even started per second billing and offering as low as 30k per second. I don't see anybody giving anything better than what we are giving here.
The bottom line is: let's go out there and make phone available to as many Nigerians as possible. Money or lack of it can no longer be an excuse for any Nigerian not having a phone. That is the mission of ReltelWireless.

Alleged NCC ban on mobile services

The report you referred to is incorrect. ReltelWireless was never at any time stopped from offering mobile services. What happened was that because we were looking at providing national service through unified license, our engineers were testing our facilities in readiness for that; it was some kind of roaming but we were only testing the facilities for that on our switch. May be some people felt threatened or something like that and went to the NCC. However, when we got the directive, we stopped; we never told anybody that we were roaming. There was no such thing. It wasn't that we were stopped from offering mobile services.

Reltel, unified license and roaming

If you don't have the unified license, you cannot roam but now that we have it, we can roam. Right now, our engineers will start working on the switch to make sure that our subscribers enjoy better roaming services. That is what I think the unified license can do for us.
I said earlier that we have gotten the national spectrum for the entire country. Now, what unified license will do for us in addition to roaming is that wherever our subscriber is going to in Nigeria, he is free to use Reltel services. So, it's not just that you travel from Lagos to Port Harcourt or Abuja but even if you get to the remotest part of the country and there is Reltel service there, you will be free to make use of our services.
Not just that, the unified license that we have is not just for voice; we are also interested in international gateway services. We will be carrying our own traffic internationally. We are also interested in international data access. We are actually looking at a complete bouquet of services, becoming a total communications solutions provider in Nigeria.

3G readiness

ReltelWireless is ready to play in this regime. Like I said, the unified license we got enables us to do so many other things. For 3G, it is an NCC initiative; it's another service option. So, we are also looking at playing in that and we are ready for this regime. If we could get the unified license, which is far more expensive, I am sure that this one is certain. Anything that will make us a complete communications company, we are going after that.

Expansion plans

As you know, ReltelWireless is not a regional operator. When the licenses were being awarded, some people went for regional licenses but we went for national license. Of course, we do have a strong presence in the Southeast as we have in Lagos. Reltel is in about 10 cities, which makes us the CDMA operator with the widest coverage in Nigeria. As we speak, we are in Lagos, Abuja, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Owerri. We are in Umuahia, Aba, Ibadan and Asaba. These are where we are right now. In the next one-month or two, we intend to cover the entire South-south. Of course, I did mention to you that we have plans to cover 51 cities within this year. This is a very aggressive and ambitious project. We have enough funds and of course, every other thing needed to achieve this.

Between Blackberry and Pocket PC

Before the product you mentioned, we already had mobility in other products. We have phones that are Internet enabled. As I speak to you, we have the thrills of our Pocket PC and some other phone brands and models that are already being used for Internet by subscribers. So, that is not new in the market as far as we are concerned. We are not in any way threatened; all we need do is to push it a bit more.

Reltel's stand on free calls

Every operator would want to do things that will make the subscriber very happy. For us here, something stands out that must be done first- value for money. We do not want to be an 'also ran'. We don't do things just because others are doing that; we look at the quality of service. If we should go into free calls, you know what is happening in the industry now; people who offer all those free services are not really finding it rosy. You don't offer services that will congest your network and make your customers go through hell in the name of making calls.
We are saying that instead of running such promo, we have our own package; we have our way of making our own customers enjoy our services without drying their pockets especially by reducing airtime tariff. When you get something back, you are enjoying full value for your money on our network. We don't believe in having free calls that will congest our network and create nightmares for our subscribers.
Remember too that when you talk about poor quality of service, nobody has mentioned Reltel. But the truth has to be told, the day we start taking care of important issues in this country, that will be the day we'll all start enjoying quality of service and value for money as far as telecom services are concerned. By this I mean constant power supply; we all know that power supply in this country, to say the least, is erratic. Having about 7000 base stations in Nigeria will mean having about 14000 generators running in those base stations because you need to have about two generators at a base station to be able to take care of your power need in that area.
Besides power, there is community issue and there is security issue. People go into this base stations, vandalize them and render the whole place useless. In some instances when your hub or your base station is down, your engineers will have difficulties accessing those areas. And that is a big problem. These are the issues and the hard facts that everybody in Nigeria knows about.

Challenges

The principal challenge is infrastructure but I think that President Musa Yar'adua has declared a state of emergency in the power sector. The second challenge is security and I think the Acting Inspector General of Police is doing something in that regard. These two issues constitute the major challenges faced by ReltelWireless and indeed every other operator in Nigeria. Access to fund too has been a major source of worry but with the consolidation exercise in the banking industry, it is a lot easier now to access fund in the banks. In fact, if there is anything that could be done to solve the power problem in the country, I give my total support and that of ReltelWireless.

Collocation, acquisition and merger

Collocation is already in use here in Nigeria; most operators are already joining hands to collocate. But you cannot as well rule out the issue of competition; this could affect the good intentions behind the model. For this reason, operators may collocate in some areas and in some areas, may not be able to collocate. However, it is an option being considered. In fact, as I am talking to you now, Reltel is collocating with some other operators and some are equally talking to us. That could be a way out of the problem of inadequate facilities in the industry.
Though acquisitions and mergers are on in the industry, but for us in Reltel, there are more important things we are saddled with one of which is providing quality service to our subscribers. We are building our module; we are aggressively rolling out, doing what we have to do. When the time comes, if the company considers it necessary to acquire other companies, we do that. For now, we are not talking about acquisition and merger.

Reltel's market share

If you look at the entire figure for the industry, you will agree with me that the Fixed wireless operators control a very small chunk of the market. But I tell you that within the CDMA category, Reltel has a lion share of the chunk. Our active subscriber base is over 400,000 nationwide.

the long-term feasibility of the companies coming in. After licensing, they all wanted people to register and help them sell their recharge cards. Going forward, they needed to deliver service; and in the light of delivering service, they needed to set up cell sites all over the country. As a service provider, we looked at the whole content to determine where we come in.

Is it in the area of engineering as we have seen physically in the establishment of cell sites or in the area of equipment supply and training?

So when we looked at it, we turned to the area of equipment supply. We represent several Radio Companies and Antennae producing companies. One of the main antennae producing companies we represent is called Katherine, a West German company. We also do radio; we represent Comsol radio. We also represent power protection companies for telecom's strategic protection equipment.
We have done quite a lot in providing service and helping the telecom companies develop at the beginning, by way of supplies and training. In the area of training, we also do safety training where we train engineers on how to build sites; we also provide safety equipment to ensure that people are safe when they are climbing the telecom towers.

For value added services, what areas are you looking at?

For value added services, is not that we are looking at one particular area. We are a telecom and security Company. For obvious reason, I would not want to divulge the full information on what we are going to offer.
But primarily, our offering is actually to help people to be able to sort themselves out. We have a service we are coming up with; it is almost through. The service is actually in form of a security service as well; it is like an insurance service, is such that any time you have a cell phone on, you're guaranteed of response. Your cell phone should be insurance for you at any point in time. We are working hard, and very soon we are going to declare it. It is service that is ingenious and specific to Nigeria, it's needed by Nigerians and we know that every Nigerian will need to subscribe to it. We don't have a central response system in Nigeria whereby people respond when you have a problem. What we need to do is to be able to secure everybody's telephone in such a way that it will be useful for them to get response for themselves when they need it. What are you doing to create awareness for this service?

Because we are a solution provider, this is a mass product in terms of value added services. In every business, you have to decide what niche you have to play on. Most of our products also span over security and telecoms, for instance we are the only company that does a GSM mobile fax machine; it actually works for you as a fax, as a phone, as a software and as a server.

It is also as I say, a high net-worth product because it is not going to be a mass product because of the price and the value it is going to give; it is probably an upper executive product. We deal on voice login product; these are all executive products as well. All the other products we do are really to help. Then in terms of value added service, that is general product and it is going to come on the platform of all the networks; as soon as we are through with it, I am sure you will hear about it. It is an Emergency Response Service.

Considering the state of telecommunication in Nigeria, where do you think we are now?

Like everything else in Nigeria, whenever we start something, we always blow it out. If you look at the number in Nigeria you talk about the growth. The first companies were live in 2001 and this is 2007, six years after we have 30 to 35 million subscribers. This is a feat that has never been achieved by any other country. It could be said that Nigerians have actually been waiting for this service and they actually do use this service. Even our volume of calls per day is very high compared to all other African countries; in fact, I think Nigeria is ranking number one at this point.

Poor quality of service has bothered Nigerians, why have you not provided enough back up against this problem?

A lot of suggestions have been put forward for security in telecoms. If you look at Nigeria, it is a peculiar country. The situations concerning Nigeria are not things to be read in textbooks. My problem with most of the people that come up with solution is that they always use what has happened in other countries. Though, it is good to know what is happening in other countries but you look at it specific in your country. What will you say about those people who will go to the cell site and remove the generator live? I don't think it has ever happened anywhere in the world. There are also some legal obligations to security; for instance, the network that also serves you, electrifies the site but legally it is not allowed because the people go on there and they are electrified and they die and you go and sue the network.

Is it peculiar to Nigeria?

I think in some African countries, it is allowed because the African people are peculiar. At the beginning, you have people just going in there to steal diesel. All they wanted was to force pipe on the diesel tank and spew it and go and sell. The level of threats here is different from what we've seen worldwide. So part of what we've looked at is that for things like that you need to have physical people, you need to have security of your installation in the hands of the people in the area. You may ask the chief of the village to give the people that will secure the area. You don't bring your own uniform security men to that kind of place. Even if you do that, you are not going to get any security.

Are you advocating for a BOT model?

The ownership of the structure should be the community. The community should own it and the payment should go to the community. Your presence must obviously be felt in any community you put this thing. Nobody can dare it because people will fight, before you come they would have wounded themselves ready for you.
Nigerians are peculiar people in fact, I am actually writing a book right now on the behavioural patterns of Nigerians; I am studying Nigerians, taking information from everybody because it is really strange that you will never find another black person like the Nigerian anywhere in the world.
We are special people, we are highly cerebral people, and we are people that will survive under any condition. We need to work on the mindset of the people. I believe that Nigerians always want to get things done because of their urge for success.

But are you satisfied with the quality of service we are getting from telecom operators?

As I said to you, quality of service is dependent on a lot of factors. When there is no constant electricity, you cannot have quality of service. When people want to steal diesel from your cell site, there can't be quality of service. When people damage your cable, there cannot be quality of service.
So, there are lots of physical factors that distort the quality of service. It is not about what the network has put up; it is about the damage that people caused to the network. You also have multiple taxations; you have the issue of local government levy, state government levy and federal government levy just on this same product. Eventually, you find these things are actually factors that are not encouraging in terms of delivering service that we require.

Don't you think there is need for focus on alternative power sources to that of Power Holding?

The alternative power sources that you mentioned are back-ups. The components for setting up solar and so on are very complex. People just sit outside and discuss issues but you need to know that to be able to set a solar panel, the militating factor is actually the cost of establishment. If I put a solar power in a house like this, you can imagine how many panels I will have to put here. It is my first cost that matters and in Africa that is always an issue.
I think the solution to the power problem is to allow every state to generate its own power and set up central power to generate for those who are not near hydro. I don't see any reason why Lagos State cannot generate the power it needs. There is water everywhere. Let the private sector participation come in and let them provide it then, you can sue the man for not providing light for you. So I think it is really the honesty of purpose of our government policies. I think they should let it go and let people do what they have to do and things will go well.

You talked about international e-learning that you signed on, what is it all about?

As I said the environment that we are living in is evolving. Like I told you, Nigerians are special people. In fact the most valuable asset that Nigeria has is the people, the human beings. They are very bright upward mobile, always trying to move forward. But of course, the environment frustrates a lot of Nigerians. That's why there is brain drain because there is no enabling environment for the people.

So where are we going to in the area of ICT?

We need to add ICT into our range of reserves to see how we can help develop the human resource capital of our nation.
The e-learning platform we have just signed up with is an initiative whereby the average Nigerian can go on to and improve his qualification. It is not just master's degrees that I am talking about; I am talking about skill for life. For instance, you are leaving university and you know that you want to work in the aviation sector; you can go online at the site and pick a course as a cabin attendant if that is what you want to do. By the time you add that certificate course to your degree, you have added value to that your B.Sc and if you apply, will definitely be short-listed.
If you did electrical electronics in the University and you did an introductory course on GSM, if you apply for job certainly, you will get it. Employers of labour are looking for value adding people, people who can add value to their environment. You want to work with broadcasting, hospitals what you have is what we call competent degree courses. Our courses are internationally certified world acclaimed, approved courses. For instance, in Computer, everybody should have basic skills in computer on graduation but no space for that in the schools' curriculum but as soon as you finish, you can get on here and get and take an ICDL, International Computer Driving License. That license enables you to work as a computer operator at a minimum anywhere you go in the world.

By the time one finishes the course, who awards the certificate?

The international body sends the certificate to you through us. We partner with different international bodies, project management institutes and all the IT related bodies.

What is price like?

Luckily no body in Nigeria can beat our price, because we take our time to go and look for the best provider for the best price. We haven't gone on to log on the international prices; it has taken us about three to five years to get this profile.

Where do you think Elcomserve will be in the next couple of years?

For me personally, I invest in security, telecom, ICT, safety and all of that. Now we are adding value to our platform because there is no basis having physical structure in place without translating it to use. It is just like I said to you, you will not see us moving CCTV cameras in our office because we only provide solutions .We only provide the security solution for you and then we install the equipment. For us, as a continuous finished player, as a continuous growth player, we are only going to identify areas where we can solve problems because we are solution providers. So as Nigeria continues to develop into that vision that we see, we will continue to be there.