As Globacom and MTN celebrate: Here is what they have done

As MTN Nigeria and Globacom celebrated their anniversaries a few weeks back, we cannot but reminisce about their activities and the battles they have fought for more than two decades. And as we look back, one thing keeps coming to mind: we have indeed been here all along to cover it all through the years.

Yes, we have been here for that long, when GSM was introduced to Nigeria, when owning a mobile phone was still considered a luxury, when a SIM pack could cost tens of thousands of naira, when calls were billed by the minute and when Nigerians stood in long queues simply to obtain a connection.

We were there when MTN launched, and the owner of Glo watched from the sidelines after being edged out by controversial licensing shenanigans. We were also there when Globacom arrived and changed the rules of the game.

MTN Nigeria is celebrating its 25th anniversary, having made its first network call on May 16, 2001 and commenced commercial operations in August that year is 25. Globacom, which commenced commercial GSM operations in August 2003, is 23.

MTN came in as a pioneer of a new commercial era and built an enormous business around scale, brand and market leadership. Glo arrived two years later and built much of its identity around disruption, aggressive pricing, indigenous ownership, technology and the willingness to challenge whatever had become the industry norm.

MTN’s head start over Globacom was not accidental. It was one of the companies produced by the 2001 GSM licensing process. Interestingly, the process also produced a company called Communications Investment Limited (CIL), which was founded by Dr Mike Adenuga. The enigma who eventually founded Globacom. Unfortunately, CIL subsequently lost its licence in controversial circumstances. Dr Adenuga would later return through Globacom, which eventually obtained the Second National Operator licence and entered the GSM market in 2003.

The history of CIL and the licence remains one of the interesting chapters in the history of Nigerian telecommunications. The episode has generated considerable commentary over the years and drained the ink of pen-pushers. What is not in dispute is that Dr. Adenuga did not disappear from telecommunications after the setback or let the dream die.

If there is one intervention that permanently changed the Nigerian mobile telecommunications market, it was Globacom’s introduction of per-second billing. Consumers had already been complaining about the minute-based system.

The company launched with per-second billing in 2003, at a time when MTN had defended the per-minute billing system and questioned the practicality of moving to per-second billing in less than 5 years from then. MTN subsequently introduced per-second billing just 3 months later and 5 months after saying it was impossible for another 5 years. That was the moment the balance of power began to change. A five-second call no longer necessarily had to feel like a one-minute call.

Globacom introduced aggressively priced starter packs and instalment arrangements that made it possible for people who could not afford the traditional upfront cost of a SIM to get connected and repay through airtime purchases. By 2004, the company had pushed the price of some prepaid SIM packs down to as little as N1.

MTN had the advantage of two years in the market. Glo effectively told the market that it was going to attack that advantage through price, accessibility and innovation.

And MTN responded. MTN had the head start, distribution system and brand recognition. Its advertising was becoming part of Nigerian popular culture. Campaigns such as “Mama E don born”, and the unforgettable “Billboard Biodun” as well as television commercials featuring ordinary Nigerians helped MTN create a brand personality that went far beyond telecommunications.

MTN understood very early that it was not simply selling calls. It was selling a lifestyle.

Glo was often more aggressive in attacking the economics of the market. Glo’s aggressive starter-pack promotions forced competitors to respond. The effect was bigger than the price of a SIM. It helped push mobile telephony from being something for the relatively affluent into something that increasingly ordinary Nigerians could afford.

MTN entered the market in 2001 on a 2G network. At the time, mobile internet was primitive by today’s standards. Access through WAP required a very different experience from what Nigerians now take for granted.

Glo entered later with an upgraded 2.5G platform and positioned data services as part of its proposition. The difference was significant because GPRS services provided a more practical route to mobile internet than the earlier WAP experience, which was known as dial-up internet. It was more like a voice call that connected you to the internet.

For the Nigerian consumer of the early 2000s, simply being able to open a website on a mobile phone without treating the internet like a conventional voice call was a major development. MTN responded by upgrading its network.

Both Glo and MTN were among the operators that obtained 3G spectrum in the 2007 licensing process, and both launched its services in February 2008. Glo subsequently made a public relations splash by announcing an early LTE deployment in Nigeria, but the larger point was that both companies were rapidly moving beyond voice into broadband. The difference was becoming less about who had the network first and more about who could turn network investment into a compelling consumer proposition. The Nigerian telecoms market was moving from being primarily a voice market to becoming a data market.

When it came to entertainment, MTN largely built its strategy around sponsorship, platforms and television shows. Glo did the same but often went further and created entertainment properties of its own, including unprecedented ambassadorial relationships with the entertainment world.

MTN was involved in some of the biggest television programmes of the period. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? premiered in Nigeria in 2004 and became one of the country’s most recognisable television game shows. MTN later partnered with Ultima Communications to launch Project Fame West Africa in 2008, turning the search for young musical talent into a major television property. There was also the MTN Family Game Show, as well as the company’s long involvement with the International Polo Tournament and a range of music, cultural and youth events.

But there was another side to MTN’s entertainment strategy that was just as powerful/ It used advertising to manufacture celebrities. Remember some of those early MTN commercials, and you remember a period when the telecoms company could take an ordinary face and turn that person into somebody Nigerians recognised everywhere. It did not always need the biggest celebrity in the room. Sometimes it created the celebrity.

Glo’s entertainment strategy was different but phenomenal. Rather than merely attaching its name to existing entertainment properties, the company became known for creating large entertainment platforms and events under its own brand. There were Glo concerts across the country, Glo Lafta Fest, Glo Campus Storm, Glo Rock ‘n’ Rule and other music and comedy platforms..

Where MTN’s early advertising strategy often involved turning relatively unknown people into recognisable faces, Glo did not always need to discover the next star; it developed a reputation for bringing established entertainers into its fold and using its enormous marketing machine to keep them commercially relevant. That strategy was particularly visible in Nollywood. At various points, Glo assembled impressive collections of actors including Desmond Elliot, Chioma Akpotha, Uche Jombo, Mike Ezuruonye, Ini Edo, Ramsey Nouah, Monalisa Chinda, Rita Dominic, Funke Akindele, Kunle Afolayan and Odunlade Adekola. It also signed major musicians across different generations.

Let us just say MTN often used entertainment to build the brand, while Glo often used the brand to build entertainment properties. And Glo’s strategy helped produce one of the most extraordinary ambassador rosters in the Nigerian marketing industry.

An entertainer who might have begun to disappear from the front pages could suddenly return to television, billboards and major events because Glo had placed that person at the centre of a new campaign. This became one of the company’s trademarks.

Sometimes it took an existing star, gave the person another enormous platform and made Nigerians pay attention again. That was particularly powerful in an industry where celebrity relevance can disappear almost as quickly as it arrives.

Mike Adenuga insisted on building Glo’s own international fibre infrastructure, resulting in Glo1, an intercontinental submarine cable. It was the first successful submarine cable from the UK to Nigeria and the first high-capacity submarine fibre cable built by a single company of its kind. .MTN was comfortable participating in a wider infrastructure ecosystem. While Glo owned an ecosystem of infrastructure itself. It became ‘The grandmaster of data’”.

By the time 4G LTE became the centre of the conversation, the competition had changed again. Voice was no longer the only battlefield. Data was now the battlefield. People were streaming music, watching YouTube, using WhatsApp, uploading photographs, running businesses from their phones and increasingly replacing computers with smartphones.

MTN accelerated its 4G rollout and eventually made the move into 5G. Glo, meanwhile, continued to invest heavily in its 4G LTE infrastructure. Its LTE Advanced network has remained a major part of its data strategy, with the company continuing to add LTE sites and expand capacity. More recently, Glo has announced further spectrum expansion and thousands of additional LTE sites as it works to increase capacity and improve data speeds.

MTN’s strategy moved the company into the next generation of connectivity relatively early, but Glo’s current strategy remains much more heavily centred on strengthening its LTE infrastructure and expanding capacity. The company continues to promote its 4G LTE Advanced network and has recently announced additional spectrum and network upgrades, including the deployment of thousands of new LTE sites. Glo has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to look at where it believes the market is underserved and then put its money behind that gap. In 2003, that gap was affordable voice and per-second billing. Then it was affordable access to mobile internet. Then international bandwidth through Glo-1. Today, a major part of that conversation is capacity, data affordability and network quality.

Twenty-five years after MTN’s arrival and 23 years after Glo entered the market, the Nigerian telecommunications industry is almost unrecognisable from what it was in 2001. Back then, owning a mobile phone was a status symbol. Today, a mobile phone is a bank, classroom, office, television, music player, marketplace, camera, newspaper, taxi service and entertainment centre all rolled into one. Back then, the major question was whether Nigerians could afford to make a telephone call. Today, the question is how much data Nigerians can afford and whether the network can support the enormous amount of traffic being generated. Back then, companies competed primarily on voice tariffs and coverage. Today, they compete on data, fintech, digital platforms, fibre, cloud connectivity, entertainment, enterprise solutions, smartphones, financial services and increasingly on the quality of the overall digital ecosystem.

For all their differences, they have spent more than two decades responding to each other. MTN arrived first and established the template for large-scale commercial GSM operations. Glo arrived later and challenged that template. Glo introduced per-second billing and MTN followed. Glo attacked SIM prices and the market responded. Glo pushed mobile data, and MTN expanded its own data capabilities. Glo built its own submarine cable while the wider industry moved into an era of multiple international fibre systems. MTN moved aggressively into 4G and then 5G. Glo continued to strengthen its 4G LTE infrastructure and expand capacity.

One has often been associated with scale, brand power and the ability to build enormous platforms. The other has often been associated with disruption, indigenous ownership, aggressive competition and a willingness to challenge established practices.

We were there when the seeds were sown. We were there when Glo arrived and shook the market. We were there when MTN fought back. And more than two decades later, we are still here, watching the two giants write the next chapter of Nigeria’s telecommunications story.