Why Nigerians Will No Longer Pay For Calls, SMS by 2019 – Spectranet Boss

David Venn
Spectranet Boss, David Venn, has made a
startling revelation that will interest all mobile
phone users in Nigeria.
The Managing Director (MD), Spectranet Ltd., Mr
David Venn, on Wednesday said Nigerians would no
longer pay for calls and Short Message Services
(SMS), on mobile networks before the end of 2019.
The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that Venn
made this prediction at an interactive session with
newsmen in Lagos. He noted that with the fast
growing usage of social media applications, such as
Skype, Imo, Whatsapp, BlackBerry Messenger,
Facebook Messenger, telecommunications had
allowed subscribers to use their data service to make
calls and sms.
Venn said subscribers spend a lot of money buying
credit to make voice calls, send SMS and also
subscribe to data services at the same time on a
particular network.
He explained that even though subscribers still
patronised voice and SMS services from the mobile
operators, data service was cost- effective, faster to
send SMS and make voice calls.
Venn noted that presently, data service providers had
been improving on the broadband network provided
to customers due to increased patronage in the data
services.
The MD noted that in other advanced countries,
mobile subscribers no longer paid for the use of
voice and SMS on their mobile networks.
Venn said that in the United Kingdom, mobile
subscribers make use of Skype application to make
calls, as long as the caller and the recipient were
connected to data service on their phones.
The MD said telecoms operators were losing huge
revenue, especially from their SMS service, with the
wide use of these social media.
Venn added that mobile operators would be forced
to expand their data network to accommodate the
growing number of subscribers that use their
networks to surf the internet.
The MD, therefore, urged mobile operators to
improve on their broadband service to the
undeserved and unserved areas in the country.
He said the company also planned to build more
base stations across its coverage to improve
broadband connectivity in undeserved areas before
the end of the year.
Venn urged the Federal Government to make the
business environment convenient for the data
providers to operate.
He contended that many data service providers had
closed down due to the high cost of doing business in
the country.