Telecom
Tizeti Roars with NeXTGEN Technologies for Affordable Unlimited Internet in Africa
How Tizeti is solving problem of affordable unlimited internet in Africa
Kendall Ananyi, CEO of Tizeti
In today’s digital ecosystem, telecommunication has become the foundation for businesses, governments, communities, and families to seamlessly connect and share information.
Unfortunately, access to the internet is still patchy across the African continent. Only 43% of Africa is on the internet, which is approximately 590 million of the population of 1.37 Billion.
Nevertheless, the last decade has seen great strides in improving telecommunications in the region.
Nigeria in particular is one of Africa’s largest telecom markets, benefiting from being the second largest economy on the continent.
Today, the country with population of 211.4 million has the highest number of users at 154 million and 73% internet penetration, according to Internet World Stats, December 2020
One company really positioned to disrupt this market is Tizeti launched7 years ago. Yes. Tizeti came on stream at the time many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are dead or dying.
The ISP and has discreetly leveraged the large wireless capacity available with Wi-fi and plummeting cost of solar panels to create a low CAPEX/OPEX network of owned & operated towers to offer disruptive, customer-friendly pricing for unlimited internet service right across Africa.
Tizeti NeXTGEN
The maiden Tizeti NeXTGEN conference held in Lagos last week; from start to end every minute spent was gained. We learned a lot of things the company has engaged in to address the perennial issue of Internet as fundamental human right; Openess, Accessibility, Multi-stakeholder engagements/participation and Cross-cutting indicators that underpin the evolution, growth and development of Internet in West Africa in line with the 38th UNESCO General Conference of November 2015 endorsed Universality of the internet dubbed ROAM-X.
The conference was like salt to a chef as Tizeti, a fast-growing wireless Internet service provider in West Africa, demonstrated intent to widen the broadband envelope with more robust internet plans, expanding coverage, especially in Nigeria and Ghana
Truly, anybody can provide data capped Internet, but providing unlimited internet is difficult, and then doing it in an affordable way that’s 30 to 50% cheaper than data capped plans is difficult. This is where Tizeti’s wizardry comes to play.
The company also cares about the environment; “climate change is real and that informed part of our operations with the solar power towers”, said Kendall Ananyi, the CEO of Tizeti. “And the good thing is when we are operating our towers we’re shifting away from the main industry, which has basically focused on colocation in the last couple of years, even though there is a telecom infrastructure deficit in Africa”.
Now, the team have figured out how to achieve this with their proprietary technology that allows them to do it with low CAPEX.
Interestingly, Kendall and his team are doing this with the four consumer-focused brands, namely; Wifi.com.ng, that focuses on the mid-market, small businesses, and residential customers, at the bottom end of the market. They have partnership with Facebook Express Wifi that provides very low cost internet data plans and also provides additional income for the retailers.
Tizeti also has Voice product, which is actually three things in one; it’s an app that gives you unlimited calls, it’s a platform for managing the calls, and it also has a set of APIs for developers to extend the features.
In 2019, Tizeti expanded into Ghana, with Ghanawifi.com, and in six months, “if you Google unlimited internet in Ghana, Ghanawifi is at the top of the Google rank”. Did you just wink a smile? Yeah, the guys deserve some accolades.
“The market for unlimited internet is huge. Just in Nigeria alone, which is the most populated country in Africa, you have two states that are both 10 million in population and about six states where you have 6 to 10 million, and we’re just only in four states, and the population has grown”, Kendall said.
In the last one year, population has grown 2.6%, mobile phone usage has grown 10%, but the internet usage due to the pandemic and the new normal, has grown 22%.
Tizeti’s journey
The company was launched formally to the public in 2014, as Wifi.com.ng. The team bootstrapped with no capital investment or any investors and got to $1 million revenue rate and had about 5000 customers, and then went through Y Combinator; the prestigious accelerator that funded companies like Paystack and Flutterwave. “We then, on the back of the Y Combinator demo day raised a seed round of $2.1 million, which was the largest announced seed round at that time”, Kendall recalled as this marked a big turn-around for Tizeti.
Later that year Express Wifi was launched to target the bottom of the market, which makes sense because as a ‘sachet economy’, you can’t build a large business in Africa by serving only the mid-market. The next year with the seed round, Tizeti’s revenue tripled, before the team consulted and then raised a Series A of $3 million bringing total raised to $5.1 million.
They also grew from 5000 users to 200,000 registered users in a year.
And in the next year, because they’re expanding so much the team secured LTE spectrum and launched the ever super LTE network in multiple States (in Nigeria) and then moved on to set up Ghanawifi. That year, the user base grew to 1.8 million users, and by this year (2021) they have reached 2 million users.
The amazing thing here at they’ve done this with a 100% Nigerian staff; “there is no expatriate in Tizeti”, the CEO said confidently.
Tizeti’s Metrics
Tizeti’s metrics speak for itself; they have 10,000 voice lines, 2 million users. And just last week, they delivered 180,000GB a day, which is 180 terabytes.
Last year, the team were clinking glasses in celebration of 100 terabytes which took them six years to get to achieve. But with the pandemic and new normal, they have almost doubled that.
To put it in perspective, 180 terabytes is a lot with four States.
Tizeti and partners
Like they say, “If you want to go far, go alone, but if you want to go farther, go together”, Tizeti’s coasts have obviously enlarged thanks to the great partnerships.
For a start, they are backed by Y Combinator and also received backing by WTI. They also backed by social capital which led the SPAC revolution in the last one year. In Ghana, Tizeti partners with CSquared to provide fiberto its towers.
“We also have integrated with payment providers; we are integrated with Paystack, we are integrated with Quickteller, Remita, and across Africa with Flutterwave. We are banked in Nigeria and Ghana with Zenith and also in Nigeria with that same brand. And we are audited in Nigeria and Ghana by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)”, the CEO explained.
How Tizeti plans to expand
Tizeti plans to expand across Africa using Venture Capital model. How? So, in a bid to enable more Africans to take advantage of digital offerings in a new world defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company announced its partnership with a $5 million venture fund focused on African startups – ISPs – with an aim of expanding internet access across Africa.
According to Ifeanyi Okonkwo, the company’s chief operating officer, the company will leverage its proprietary OS technology, global partnerships with equipment vendors, submarine cable companies, payment providers, and Venture firms to provide the resources for these startup ISPs to accelerate the availability of unlimited internet across the continent.
Successful startups will participate in a 3-months programme with at Tizeti’s location in Nigeria or Ghana where they are expected to gain the knowledge and expertise to rapidly launch affordable internet services in their respective countries.
Recall the playbook developed for Ghana made Tizeti number one (in Google ranks), and will now expand across Africa, aggressively. Then, obviously, the company is one of the first few startups to have hit a million users a long time ago, and with that, obviously, the customer-care service has to pick up.
Kendall and his team demonstrated great understanding of the need to care and carry customers along through the deployment of next generation type of customer service – a smart, interactive voice response system.
They also introduced a different type of one time passwords to SMS Pin using voice.
One of the most intriguing sessions was Tizeti’s demo of the next generation WiFi. This is an ISP that has successfully deployed both the Wi Fi and LTE networks.
During the session participants had a glimpse of what the next generation of WiFi looks like. It was mind blowing see Tizeti demonstrate this technology.
Moving on, they also introduced two partnerships with two top FinTech startups – Aella Pay and Kudi.
So, Tizeti is expanding within Africa; and within Nigeria, they’ve been in four States and in the next quarter, they’re going to 10 States and 14 cities, taking its affordable, unlimited internet to those cities.
“We are expanding our unlimited internet plans, currently available in cities in Lagos, Ogun, Rivers and Edo States, to Abuja, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Warri/Asaba, Eket/Uyo, Onitsha, Aba, Enugu, and Calabar. We are building brand-new, solar-powered, 4G-capable towers in these cities and leveraging expansive fiber-networks built by some of our partners, to enable us to roll out our low-cost broadband service, and bring millions of people online, who can now take advantage of the life-changing socio-economic opportunities that access to the Internet provides,” Kendall said. And you can sign up now at https://wifi.com.ng/presignup.
From the foregoing, for many countries in Africa, there is still a huge digital divide. Tizeti is playing a significant role in addressing this digital infrastructure deficit with innovative technology and capabilities, to improve development outcomes for millions of people, with better outcomes for employment, education, family and social life, and access to information.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has charged the over 174 million telecoms subscribers in the country to constantly monitor their data usage to authenticate their consumption level.
This follows concerns being raised by telecoms consumers about the rapidity of data depletion on their devices.
The Commission particularly enjoined the consumers to always contact their service providers to make requests for cases of discrepancies noted in their data usage.
While the consumers are expected to contact their service providers to request for their usage history/statement where inconsistency exists in their data usage as first step, the Commission said they may also escalate such issues to the Commission through its toll-free Number 622 and social media platforms, especially if their requests are not satisfactorily handled.
The Commission, which also made some clarifications regarding the concerns being raised by the consumers around data usage, said the need to inform the consumers on their concerns is part of its commitment to protect and appropriately inform and educate the telecom consumer on industry issues.
Making further clarifications around data speed and usage, the Commission said data speed is the speed at which data is transferred between two devices, measured in megabits per second (Mbps or mbps), stressing that given the spread of Internet services and the immense investment in the sector, data rates have continued to increase and users may be unaware of how to measure data speed.
The telecoms regulator explained further that websites such as www.fast.com also provide an easy way for consumers to measure Internet speed on any device at any location.
“The higher the data speed, the quicker pages load-downloads and uploads-occur and expectedly, the quicker data bundles are exhausted. So, as telecom consumers are able to do more on devices in less time, some consumers’ devices & network service providers make it possible to limit data speed to help users manage data usage better.
“In any case, most devices now include functions to measure data used by devices and it is imperative that users monitor same to authenticate data usage, such as applications left running on devices. Therefore, where discrepancies occur users may contact their service provider to request for their usage history/statement. If request is not dealt with satisfactorily then, users can contact NCC by calling 622 or engage the Commission via its social media platforms”.
It added that the data usage experience is a function of location, network equipment and users connected in a particular location.
Association of Mobile Communication Device Technicians of Nigeria (AMCODET), has called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to make it mandatory for mobile phones to be registered at the point of purchase.
According to Kehinde Apara, president of AMCODET, implementing this registration process would significantly help in combating phone theft and assist in locating stolen devices.
Apara, made this appeal in an interview in Lagos on Monday.
He stated, “Registration of mobile phones will reduce theft to the barest minimum, as it will be difficult for thieves to sell registered stolen phones.”
Apara explained that the registration of new phones would also help to reduce the harassment faced by technicians by security agencies.
“So many of our members have been labelled accomplices in theft cases, because customers bring stolen phones to them to repair. We believe this is unfair to such innocent people,” he said.
He went on to highlight that the NIN-SIM linkage, which was originally an idea brought forward by AMCODET, was created to curb insecurity and theft.
However, Apara pointed out that “It is not enough.”
He stressed the need for further measures to ensure the proper registration of mobile phones, emphasising that such a step would make it easier for technicians to identify stolen devices brought in for repair or flashing.
“AMCODET has been at the forefront of organising seminars on the security of mobile phones and has also been sensitising the public and authorities on the challenges faced by the association due to phone theft. There is no way our members can identify if a phone is stolen when brought to them for repairs or flashing, but if the phone is registered, the technician can more easily identify it,” he explained.
Apara also expressed a desire for closer collaboration with security agencies, saying, “We want to work with security agencies to ensure that phones are properly registered, theft is prevented, and thieves are brought to book.”
In additin to the call for phone registration, Apara appealed to individuals and the private sector to support efforts to develop the mobile phone industry in Nigeria.
He remarked, “We need individuals’ support to develop our industry, rather than relying on government for everything.”
He emphasised that Nigeria has the capacity to develop its own technology and reduce reliance on imported devices, “With the support of individuals and the private sector, Nigerians can begin to develop its own technology, rather than relying on imported technology.”
Apara expressed optimism for the future of the mobile phone industry in Nigeria, believing that with the right support, the country could build its own technological solutions and move towards greater self-reliance.
“We can develop our own technology.”
“But we need the support of individuals and organisations to make it happen,” he said.
Credit: NAN
French antitrust regulators have fined Apple 150 million euros ($162 million) over its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature, which is facing scrutiny in multiple European countries.
The French Competition Authority ruled that Apple’s implementation of ATT was “neither necessary nor proportionate to the company’s stated goal to protect user data” and unfairly penalized third-party publishers.
Alongside the financial penalty, Apple has been ordered to publish the decision on its website for seven days. The ruling comes amid ongoing investigations in Germany, Italy, Romania, and Poland into ATT, which Apple introduced in 2021 as a privacy safeguard.
ATT requires apps to obtain explicit user consent via a pop-up before tracking activity across other apps and websites. If users decline, the app loses access to their advertising identifier, limiting targeted advertising. Critics argue that the system disproportionately benefits Apple by restricting competitors while promoting its own advertising services.
The French watchdog found that ATT forces users to navigate excessive consent windows for third-party apps on iPhones and iPads, making the process unnecessarily complicated.
Additionally, Apple’s system requires users to opt out of ad tracking twice rather than once, which the authority said undermines the feature’s neutrality and causes economic harm to app publishers and ad service providers.
The ruling emphasized that smaller publishers, which rely heavily on third-party data collection for revenue, are particularly affected.
The French regulator initially declined to impose emergency measures in 2021 after complaints from the advertising industry, but continued its investigation, ultimately leading to Monday’s decision.
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