Loy Okezie
If you’re easily wowed by advertising on billboard or television that depicts a man blown away by the speed of his Internet connection, just wait until you test the service.
For so long, brands have joined forces with advertising agencies to create a good product/service out of a lousy one at the very expense of consumers who hardly complain nor rely on the grossly inefficient Consumer Protection Council of Nigeria.
In Kenya, consumers have had to create their own consumer protection council as in sites such as Gotissuez. In Nigeria, we mostly rant about failed services on Twitter or Facebook and hardly get the attention of brands.
For Internet-related services, operators have used all methods to lure consumers, spending millions, if not billions in advertising instead of on improving their service delivery. For instance, most new generation ISPs and so-called broadband providers such as ipNx, Swift Networks and Mobitel advertise speeds from 1MBps to 4MBps, but deliver less than that.
Here’s a screenshot of Swift Network’s and Mobitel’s actual speeds for an advertised speed of up to 4MBps:
From the speed test screenshots above, you’d notice that download and upload speeds are very poor and the connection grade of the above ISPs are D+ and D respectively (that is between 20% – 39%) showing that 63% and 73% of connections in Nigeria are faster than these ISPs.
Granted, these ISPs operate in difficult conditions with challenges such as power and infrastructure to contend with. Again, the issue is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. In the UK, the average advertised speed in May 2011 was 15Mbit/s, which was 8.2Mbit/s higher than average actual speeds of 6.8Mbit/s, according to Ofcom.
Yet, that’s not an excuse to mislead consumers into thinking that their Internet services are faster than a space shuttle.
Note to ISPs: Why not spend millions improving on your service delivery and retaining loyal consumers, instead of advertising a lousy Internet service?
Note to Users: Why not test an Internet speed of an ISP before deciding to purchase their Internet service, instead of being blown away by a commercial advert?
Note to Self: Why not publicly diss ISPs that suck on a regular basis, instead of being diplomatic 
Thanks to @amorebise for the Swift Networks speed test screenshot
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7 Responses to In Nigeria, Advertised Internet Speed Is Not Actual Speed
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It really is very sad. What is most pathetic is that we pay premium fees for this shoddy services. Shouldn't NCC be the one to regulate these people?
thanks for sharing man
Try fastlink in my side of town, it’s disheartening.
Until NCC stops playing lipservice and puts
Its house in order with implementable penal measures,
then consumers will heave a sigh of relieve
Swift is my ISP both at home and office.They recently migrated to 4G and that's when our troubles started. What was promised as a faster and more stable service has been most aggravating, leaving us wondering if we shouldn't have been left in peace crawling along with our 3G. The outdoor modem we were given packed up after a day's use (changed twice). I suspect that equipment are subquality from you know where… For 3 weeks out of the month, the service was down but come the billing date and they're quick to cut you off. Very poor business sense. Plus individual subscribers and small businesses are made to feel that our custom is not important enough compared to their corporate accounts. I recently got the MTN service. But you are right. Slower than advertized. Forget about uploading or streaming large files, audio or video. It's a night mare. What about the time lost. Go slow for road, go slow for internet. What a life!
Is there a way we can reach out to the NCC and make serious complaints? Some kind of Consumer Parliament for data users.? I have been complaining about this for a while now and found it refreshing that you wrote this article. I dare say part of the problem is the fact that those crappy networks are riding on the vast lack of knowledge in our society. GPRS gets to 48kbps, EDGE should be able to give speeds of 200kbps and HSDPA should be able to give 21Mbps!!! But offcourse they get away with the deception because the rights of the consumer is not being protected. Lets face it, a lot of us who pays for 3G will be happy if we can only get GPRS speeds but then we have to settle for 6 – 10 kbps. It is really sad!!!
That is one thing about all these networks in Nigeria – poor services
In my article on "Broadband Internet by GSM Networks in Nigeria and How to Choose the Best http://utibeetim.com/broadband-internet-by-gsm-ne... ", I talked about my experiences with all the GSM internet broadband service in Nigeria, their service and plans and why you should choose a particular network and why you shouldn't? I pointed out how MTN innovative ideas about their adverts and how their adverts can heal the sick!
Honestly speaking, when I see the advert by these networks in Nigeria and I use it, it stunned me that what they are saying or advertising does not commensurate with the quality of service. Some time what you see is absolute nonsense!
About the customer protection, NCC are not doing much about this. They claim to have customer protection arm but that isn't working.