The Option for NigComSat’s Future

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September 12, 2017

Our dynamic Honourable Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has noted that the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) would be commercialized in order to position it for relevance and growth. Mr. Minister is perfectly correct. NIGCOMSAT has failed Nigeria, and it is very shameful. Nigeria sent satellites to the space without a single strategy on what to do with them. That is why after years of operating satellites, through our international partners, we have failed to unlock the values to improve the lives of our citizens. That is typical Nigerian: buy the car first, before you even consider going for driving test. Yes, they wrote the plan to send the satellites to the space, but none to make use of the downward signals.

Mr. Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications says Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) will be a competitive commercial service provider via commercialisation.

Shittu said this in a statement signed by Mr Henshaw Ogbubike, the Deputy Director, Press in the ministry on Monday in Abuja. …

The minister said that ever since the launch of NIGCOMSAT 1R in 2011, several efforts had been made to optimise the value of the satellite success.

He said that the recent initiative to introduce Direct-To-Home Television Broadband and Global Positioning Services was the first attempt to commercialise NIGCOMSAT 1R and appropriately position the company in global 86 [billion] dollars annual revenue industry.

NIGCOMSAT, Nigeria (Source: Daily Trust)

But what the honourable minister plans to do may be too late for NIGCOMSAT unless the agency plans to launch new satellites. That will be a big mistake in this era of national austerity. The launched satellites are already old and are not optimized for most of the emerging opportunities today. Private satellite companies will do better than government, and that is the reason why government must sell NIGCOMSAT through a competitive bid. It is hopeless for government to continue to try. NIGCOMSAT mission is clear but it does not need to execute it for Nigeria,

NIGCOMSAT Ltd owns and operates the Nigerian Communications Satellite systems. The NigComSat-1R system is built to provide domestic and international satellite services via a 2 way satellite communications service across West, Central, South East Africa, Europe and Asia. Our main focus is to operate and manage the Nigerian Communications Satellites to provide on commercial basis, comprehensive transmission services via digital or analogue systems and to operate same by either fixed or mobile satellite, direct broadcast satellite services, end to end solutions and to engage in transponder leasing and such business for profit.

The Emerging Opportunities

Beyond TV, broadband and GPS services, satellite could help Nigeria unlock value in the agriculture sector. However, it is not very clear if the resolution of NIGCOMSAT satellites can deliver some of the services required in the emerging fields. Satellites can help detect pests, drought, diseases and other major challenges farmers deal with daily. Also, satellite can help in data transmission between farms and data centers where the data will be processed for insights. Nigerian farmers need this support. However, NIGCOMSAT is not positioned to deliver it. Besides agriculture, there are also opportunities in the defense sector.

All Together

There is a huge opportunity in the global satellite business which is estimated at $86 billion. At the moment, Nigeria loses $2.2 billion yearly owing to low adoption of satellites, according to Daily Trust. By commercializing NIGCOMSAT, Nigeria will reap huge benefits from the nation’s investments. The privatization must be competitively done to avoid the NEPA tragedy where privatization has brought nothing but more darkness. The nation must sell to quality companies with capacities to operate downside satellite operations. The minister got it right, and we hope he executes the privatization efficiently.

The Fashionista’s iPhone X

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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September 12, 2017

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Apple pivots into a fashion company, in the likes of Louis Vuitton, with the launch of iPhone X today. It costs $999, heavy on fashion elements, but hardly moves the technology trajectory. But that does not matter, because it is Apple. The world will cover it for free, and Apple will enjoy a great earned media. From CNN to NBC to Nigeria’s AIT, the message will be the same: there is a new product from Apple.

“We have great respect for these words and don’t use them lightly,” said Cook, adding the new phone would set the path for technology for the next decade.

The new iPhone X kills the home button to make space for a larger screen. It has an edge-to-edge display, glass on the front and back, wireless charging so you can leave wires at home, a surgical grade stainless steel band around the edges. It’s water and dust resistant.

The 5.8-inch OLED display isn’t just bigger, it also packs 458 pixels per inch. Apple calls it a Super Retina Display. It supports HDR, has a million-to-one contrast ration and improved color accuracy. …

The company also introduced a Face ID-enabled feature called Animoji, which serves up animated emoji that mimic your facial expressions. For example, you’ll be able to give your friends side-eye as a unicorn.

Apple deserves its moments. But when a phone costs $999, it is simply not a phone anyone. That is a paycheck to many people. Also, that will not matter because Apple has a strategy to deal with this pricing as I noted in a piece this morning.

In the coming months, we will all know how it works out for Apple. But no matter how you see this, Apple has entered a territory that may be the inflection point. This will either lead it to a more glorious future or could begin to open the opportunities for rivals, especially Huawei, to peel its fans (yes, the customers).

Fans pay for tickets and those tickets are never free. If you like a team and cannot pay to watch it, you are not a true fan. Apple fans will now have to pay $999 to become true believers. How many can go this path? We do not know. Apple has a record of making analysts look silly as it delivers great results. But this one may be different.

The Data Challenge

Apple needs data to compete against Amazon/Google in the new data war. When its phone is expensive, that is not a fine strategy to get that data. A premium product, differentiated by hardware and exclusively packaged by a proprietary software, is never going to be for the mass market. Is there a limit to this strategy? Apple will have to deal with these issues with this rising price:

Data is Critical. Right now, Apple is not collecting any data from the “poor world” for iOS, its operating system. The rich people will not be enough for the AI-first world. It needs all the data to help it make better products. A cheaper phone will help Appple
Car infotainment: In the next few years, many car companies will begin the adoption of mobile OS like Android and iOS at scale, as they bridge the gap between mobile and car. Since cars are sold in the emerging world, familiarity with OS will be a huge factor in adoption. Apple needs to ensure it has a cheap phone that will help introduce these citizens to the iOS
Emerging World is huge: Apple does not have any major strategy to win places like Africa. That is a big mistake because these areas will grow over time. Apple cannot just forget them. It needs a strategy to have them in its ecosystem.
Other Products/OS: Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa can possibly become the voice operating system of this era. You will like it to be in your ecosystem. The more the users, the better. If Apple remains the phone of the rich, developers may not just take it the way they will take Android which remains available for both the rich and poor with its wide range of devices, at different pricing points. So, it makes sense for Apple to expand the customer base.

All Together

I do think in coming months, Apple will return to the podium. It will introduce a cheaper phone for the emerging markets. This fashionista moment will come home.

Introduce a phone brand called Apple and make the price $350. Make the design of Apple (the phone brand) to be radically different so that you do not cannibalize the premium iPhone. By having these two brands, Apple can compete in both the upper and lower segments of the markets. We will have Apples in Nigeria while they will sell their iPhones in New York. This is similar to Toyota selling Lexus and Honda selling Acura.

Check out this iPhone manager to transfer photos, videos, songs, contacts, etc. from your old iPhone to iPhone X.

Amazon’s West African Entrance

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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September 12, 2017

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Bottomline: Last week, Amazon posted a new job description, titled “Business Development Manager – eCommerce/ West Africa”, but quickly took it down. Amazon wants to be in West Africa, using its best product, the ecommerce, as a landing platform to expand its empire, and have new data sources. Those empires include Echo/Alexa, Amazon Web Services, […]

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Thank You, Corporate Subscribers

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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September 12, 2017

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Our community is getting more exciting and the next level is here. We are now having companies subscribing to Tekedia for their staff. It comes like this to our email; this one from a LinkedIn user (we have his permission to share) to my InMail:

Sir,

Good morning…. interesting outlook on some of your articles..I am actually going to subscribe your article for my employees in Nigeria to read…. You have some interesting outlook on the economy.

We welcome that. Thank you.

Apology for Offline

But one hour ago, site crashed. We are on Amazon Web Services but just noticed that AWS does not guarantee blanket traffic growth. We will upgrade and team is evaluating options. We started with the lowest possible plan but it needs to evolve. I apologize for the service interruption that happened.

This is a good problem to have and I thank you for the patience. We will get site to the best possible quality. Here are some data snapshots. When the data was high, site froze. And people left, and site came back live. That is not supposed to be. I had expected AWS to accommodate the traffic surge at the peak hour. We will get into the right plan to ensure we enjoy that elasticity AWS offers.

Apologies for the Downtime This Early Morning – Trying to Implement SSL

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Tekedia Editors

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September 12, 2017

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We want to apologize for the downtime early this morning. We were trying to implement SSL on Tekedia. But owing to traffic, it was not just working. We aborted the process to get the site back online. We apologize. We will work on that during the weekend.

We do not really need SSL but Google has noted that it needs it to improve a site ranking. We want more people to find Tekedia articles on search engine and we are just complying with almighty Google.

Thanks

Tekedia Admin