Thibaud Weick, Group Chief Commercial Officer, Smile Communications Nigeria, is a strong advocate of internet tech­nology. His company provides the 4G LTE service, running on the 800 megahertz frequency, which he argues would soon become the only network of choice for mil­lions of internet users in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. He may not be far from the truth as the 4G LTE, which covers two ground breaking technologies, 4G (mean­ing the fourth generation of data technology for mobile networks) and LTE (Long Term Evolution) has been found to deliver probably the fastest high speed data service available today. The French man recently had this chat with Daily Sun to unveil the unique aspects of the Smile range of internet services, which he says is rapidly making giant in-road into the country’s in­ternet market due to its speed and efficiency.
Excerpt:
Smile range of internet services in Nigeria
We decided to come to Nigeria because it is the most important mar­ket on the continent. It is the fastest growing economy in Africa and with broadband access to the internet and the quality of internet services we can provide, we are in a unique position to support that growth. Not only to ben­efit from the growth, but to be instru­mental to that growth by deploying broadband, super fast, super-reliable access to the internet in Nigeria. And there are some statistics from the World Bank when in a developing country you increase the broadband internet penetration. That has an im­pact on GDP growth. So what we are doing in effect is actually to enable that growth through the provision of our unique type of internet service.
Your services
Simply put, we deliver internet the way it is planned and meant to be. So, what I experience in Nigeria myself before the Smile range of services were rolled out was a lot of frustration, sharing files with colleagues working elsewhere. There were lots of frustra­tion in general using the internet be­cause of the low level of technology and infrastructure to power it. But that is not what internet is supposed to be. For those of us who travel a lot, espe­cially out of the shores of the country, in most developed parts of the world, Europe or America, what you experi­ence is a world of super fast, super-re­liable, cost-effective internet services adequately backed up by the very lat­est in internet technology. That is what we are delivering, exactly the way it should be.
Unique selling point
We are bringing the latest technolo­gy available, not only in Africa or Ni­geria but generally available in the de­veloped world to deliver access to the internet. And we run on 4G LTE tech­nology in the 800 Megahertz band which is the standard used in Europe and the United States and this is the global standard we’ve now brought to Africa. That means we are bringing the very latest into the market. You can’t get anything better in London today than what obtains in Lagos, for instance. Ditto for New York or any­where else in the advanced countries of the world. So we are using the lat­est technology, which we simply re­fer to as the technology of the future. Tell you what, the entire ecosystem is rallying around that technology, our partners, the network, in China, South Korea and elsewhere are now using the device in their tablets, smart phones, ipads, iphones, etc. So there’s a lot of positive development. It’s the next growth wave in the industry and we are ahead of that wave. And we are bringing that into Nigeria before many other places in the world.
Performance in Nigeria’s mar­ket so far
We are very happy with the devel­opment. We have received a lot of very positive feedback, an obvious indication of the giant inroads we are presently making in the Nigerian market. Now, these feedbacks com­ing from our subscribers, partners and colleagues in the industry praising our services is an ample testimony of our ground breaking strides already in the internet market in Nigeria. I should say these commendations are fuelling the ambitious plans we have for the market in the future.
Going nationwide
I assure you that it will happen in the second half of this year, and even more in 2015. For now, we are ensur­ing that we gain a solid foothold in Lagos and Ibadan, the two major cit­ies we have already covered, before moving elsewhere. That is why we have concentrated so much attention on Lagos, being the country’s number one commercial city with millions of internet users. At the last count, we have reached 60 per cent subscribers’ level in Lagos. In no time at all, we plan to cover the whole city before hitting Abuja, the country’s capital and Port Harcourt in the South.
How to stimulate interest in your services
Well, we do engage in some pro­motions once in a while. Especially during the last Easter celebrations, we rolled out a special Easter bundle, which ran from Thursday to Easter Monday night solely for our custom­ers to enjoy throughout the festive period. Like I said, it was just for that period. We have, however, avoided a situation where we would be making promotions a habit. Besides, it is not sustainable for the business in the long run. And if it is not sustainable for the business, it is not sustainable for the customers either. So, we are not com­peting on price-saving promotions, we are competing on the quality of experience and of our services.
Competition
No, I don’t think so. Because some of the unique characteristics of the technology we are deploying have been designed and optimised for data traffic. At the early stage of worldwide internet acceptance and use, the 3G LTE had been thought to be novel and advanced. But nowadays, with the arrival of the 4G LTE on 800MHZ technology, that is just becoming ob­solete. The difference is that the 4G LTE is far more advanced, faster and capable of carrying more data. Sim­ply put, for this modern era, anywhere in the world, it is really the best you can get in terms of efficiency and ca­pacity. Specifically, what we offer on your frequency band – 800MHZ – is far more superior to what most inter­net users in Nigeria, and even else­where in Africa are accustomed with. We have far better indoor penetration than any of the existing frequency bands. With the 4G LTE you don’t need to do what people in Nigeria re­fer to as the “signal patrolling” to find something on the window. That is not necessary because our signals go deep indoors.
The other advantage is that you have a wider geographical coverage with just one base station. Now, the capacity of one base station or unit is 10 times higher than what you have on 3G LTE so that in a nutshell, it is unique, the only technology available today to deliver internet the way inter­net was meant to be. And to quickly answer the question you posed on the potential pitfalls ahead considering the peculiar challenges in those parts, I should say absolutely not. We have a system of constantly monitoring in place per second to gauge the market in order to be constantly ahead of the demands.
Nigeria infrastructure challenges
Tell me anywhere in the world, even in the more advanced countries of the world, where there are no chal­lenges? The fact of life is that there will always be challenges in every hu­man endeavour but the essential thing for anyone is to always find a way to surmount these challenges and forge ahead. Our driving passion here at Smile is the future. We have projected into the future and are immensely driven by the prospects buried in it. On a personal note, even though I am not an African by origin, I made a personal decision to come here, start­ing with Egypt and the other places I went, that I will work assiduously to be a part of the new age of IT profes­sionals who will drive the economy of the country to its desired heights through the provisions of an internet broadband service yet unrivalled in these parts.
So far, with the response of sub­scribers in the short time we have been here, I am convinced that, that future is assured. I came to Nigeria the first time two years ago and I was amazed by the enterprise and energy of the people especially here in Lagos. Again, I found the quality, both men­tally and professionally, of the people I was working with quite impressive.
Compared to other places I have worked, I find Nigerians very hard­working, very forward-looking peo­ple. So with that kind of human capi­tal and potential, it cannot go wrong. Now, there are political issues, as well as security challenges but I am sure it is the job of the government to deal with it. I know it is not going to be easy but with more commitment and support coming from the people, the government can surmount all of these problems.
Coping with demand across Ni­geria
The best way I think we can cope is to continually invest in both the human capital, infrastructure and the technology. We have very financially strong shareholders supporting the company and they have a long-term commitment to maintain this level of support for the company. And we do have a roll out plan. In that roll out plan, we also have not only geograph­ical expansion but a built-in capac­ity in the area in which we operate to facilitate quick response to customer demands. All this is to ensure that there’s no degradation in the customer experience. So everything in our busi­ness is to support geographical expan­sion and capacity enhancement in the areas where demands become very strong. So that everyone gets exactly what he is paying for and what he wants.
Coping with challenges of power outages and access to capital.
On the issue of access to capital, I should say we are very comfortable with the strong financial backing we are getting like I said, from our share­holders. So, we have no problem with that. On the power issue, I would like to say power outages are not peculiar to Nigeria. Take the example of the telecommunications industry in Af­rica, which had to be quite ingenuous to navigate the problem. Same way we have had to partner experienced power/energy providers to operate our systems. So we have everything in place to forestall a possible break in power supply.
Investment in IT infrastructure
I can’t tell you off hand the number of base stations we must have to guar­antee effective services in say, Lagos, but I can tell you this much, where Etisalat and the other networks, which operate on the 3G LTE, for instance, would need four base stations, we would need just one – that is, a ratio of one to four. And like I said previ­ously, we operate 10 times more ca­pacity than the conventional 3G. So, to get the coverage, one for four and in terms of capacity, 10 times more is one base station.
First, I want to disagree with you that the 4G LTE internet technology is very expensive to deploy. Yes, it is a significant investment but is not as expensive as you make it out to be. The 4G LTE is the most cost-effective internet technology available because it is optimised for data.
How to win Nigerian customers
Seeing is believing. And word of mouth is extremely powerful. There­fore, follow up strategy is about the experience, we deliver the best inter­net experience in the market, and this is what we sell. We tell our custom­ers we ‘give them super fast, super-reliable’ internet services, they try it our and are instantly bought over. The next thing is that they tell their friends, family about it. Those in turn use it and are also hooked. Then it goes on and on. That has been our strategy. We don’t compromise on quality at all.
Manpower
We have very few experts in the company. And if you go around into our offices to look for the foreign ex­perts, I can assure you they are not a lot. Most top positions in our compa­ny are occupied by Nigerian experts, and where you have a foreigner oc­cupying a top management position, we have a succession plan in place for a Nigerian to eventually succeed him after a certain period of understudy.
Who are your target customers?
Our target cuts across all of these cadres you have mentioned. We target companies, individuals and everyone who wants to use internet services that Smile provides. However, it is a little rare for now to see ordinary folks us­ing our services because they seldom can afford the devices, which make their usage possible. Let’s be true to ourselves. Only few people can afford iphones, ipads, smart phones and all the devices that could necessitate the use of our services. But we hope to win this segment of the populace to Smile once the economy improves to such a level that they can afford these devices.
Competition from your rivals in the market
We are coping just fine because no one is offering the kind of services we offer. Seeing is believing. By compar­ison, we are far ahead of our competi­tors in the market because of the kind of advanced technology we deploy.
Presently we have bundles from 500megabytes up to 200gigabytes which can be used 24/7. We also introduced in March, leading up to the Easter holidays, Smile night­time, weekend bundles specifically designed for use in the night and at weekends. I think what will be the most significant step forward in the future will be to introduce Voice SMS. The reason we haven’t yet introduced it in these parts is because the devices to sustain it are not yet widely avail­able in West Africa.
Competing in the Voice market
Yes, I think we can. On a 4G LTE network, a voice call is like a data call. Since it is exactly the same, I don’t think we would have to change too radically to accomplish it.
The future
I would like to see in the not too dis­tant future, Smile broadband services becoming the first choice for internet users in Nigeria, and by extension, in all of Africa.

Nigeria needs efficient ICT platform to sustain GDP growth