Airtel to roll out Wi-Fi in 17 African countries...A Nigerian Perspective

Its obviously not news that Airtel Africa plans to launch WiFi in 17 African countries, though no official statement has been made yet by the company.

GigaOM has learned that pan-African operator Airtel is deploying a large-scale carrier Wi-Fi network using Ruckus and Alcatel-Lucent gear. With mainly 2G networks to its name today, Airtel will use Wi-Fi to jump start its mobile data services

WiFi is a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly (using radio waves) over a computer network, including high-speed Internet connections.

That being said, the primary reason for this move is to provide access to high speed internet to subscribers on predominantly 2G networks. Let me elaborate further that this means; on a 2G data network, the ideal data speeds for GPRS and EDGE are about 80kbps and 240kbps, however on WiFi, the speed ranges from 1Mbps to 150Mbps ( depending on the range and wireless protocol used). That's at least quadruple the capacity available on a 2G network.

In Nigeria, however, 3G, 3.5G and HSDPA, HSPA+ are available in major Nigerian cities and to my greatest surprise even in my village. (somewhere in Anambra State). HSPA+ is currently the fastest access technology in Nigeria as I write and stands at 42Mbps as advertised by Airtel, Etisalat and Glo, though nobody ever gets that much but that's another story for another day.
The advent of WiFi will allow cheaper non 3G phones to have access to high speed data which is really really cool as this is bound to increase the number of data subscribers on the African continent.

As cool as this sounds, my only grouse with this that Airtel plans to start in Niger as reported. No disrespect intended to Niger Rep. but from a business point of view, it just doesn't add up. Here's why I say so

•  WiFi can serve as an alternative data access method and also serve as provide extra capacity especially in densely populated areas such as Lagos metropolis where almost all networks experience congestion.
• Having worked on projects in both countries, and I can confidently estimate the number of active daily data subscribers in Airtel Niger to be between 11-15k, while in Nigeria, there are over 590k daily data subscribers. 
• The growth in the telecommunication is unparalleled anywhere in the African continent. Nigeria added 5 million new mobile subscriptions in 2012 alone.
• The launch of Mobile Number Portablity (MNP) will give them the advantage, attract new subscribers to their network and in turn increase their data subscriber base.
• Data is very BIG business in Nigeria already. Soon data revenues will rival that of voice.
• Nigerian subscribers are more active online than ever before, with Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Youtube, Whatsapp, BBM being very popular among the young generation.

Need I say more than I have already. Its a good initiative but it will yield much more if it is launched in Nigeria.