Expanding beyond the pipe business is really about questions of selectively looking at where we can add value or give different service providers access to our network in a way that’s win-win.

— Steve Evans, CEO of Etisalat Nigeria

DEC 2012 9 10 VOICES FROM OPERATORS Etisalat Nigeria Staying in the fast lane

When we interviewed Steve Evans, CEO of Etisalat Nigeria (EMTS), two years ago, the then late entrant was rapidly gaining market share, with a keen focus on mobile data and youth market opportunities. Now, with its fourth anniversary celebrated, Evans sat down with WinWin once more to discuss the operator’s unwavering momentum and commitment to the Nigerian market.

By Julia Yao

ow in its fifth year of operation, Etisalat fourth anniversary this October, growth shows no sign of Nigeria is still in the fast lane, having doubled abating. The company expects 50% subscriber growth this its subscriber base in the past two years. year, reaching 15 million by the end of 2012. The smiling CEO Steve Evans attributes this success to Evans describes this phenomenal growth as “certainly being Nthe operator’s relentless efforts to innovate and control the biggest single story for the Etisalat Group over the past its network quality. Though a dynamic and challenging two years.” market, EMTS has affirmed its commitment to Nigeria But going beyond this sheer market growth, Evans, a with a planned investment of close to USD500 million. telco veteran with experience in developed markets such This should help the operator bring to life the values of its as France and Australia, is deeply aware of the data shift parent – “being more than a mobile network, but a way of taking place in Nigeria’s young and dynamic market. “Now life” in Africa’s largest telco market. we’re on the second leg of the mobile journey. The first leg was essentially built around voice and the second leg will be around broadband. Given the poor fixed network Dynamism and growth infrastructure, Nigerian consumers and businesses alike rely heavily on a mobile delivery access mechanism for In 2011, GSMA rated Africa as the fastest growing broadband. Mobile broadband is going to be the main way market in the world, with Nigeria being the fastest growing for people to access and send data, access entertainment, market within it, having grown 60 fold from 2002 to 2011. download videos and music, and keep in touch with their “Mobile has been an unqualified success in the Nigerian friends by Skype. What we are doing is going to be critical market. There has not been another sector in the last decade for both social and economic development in Nigeria.” which has come even close to replicating the success of With this strong belief in mobile broadband, Etisalat mobile in this country,” says Evans. With the country’s Nigeria launched its nationwide 3G network in September mobile subscriber base finally hitting the 100 million mark 2011. “Since then, the sort of access to broadband the in June 2012 (out of a population of 162 million), market customers have been able to enjoy in Nigeria has changed growth has tapered a bit, hovering around 10% annually dramatically. We’re seeing a phenomenal uptake in data for the past two years. However, for EMTS, starting from services, people wanting access to Internet. That, to me, is scratch in a crowded market and having just celebrated its a very exciting development.”

DEC 2012 9 10 VOICES FROM OPERATORS

Mobile broadband is going to be the main way for people to access and send data, access entertainment, download videos and music, and keep in touch with their friends by Skype. What we are doing is going to be critical for both social and economic development in Nigeria.

Innovation that’s useful Bank of Nigeria was very complimentary about how user- friendly and how much more attractive this will make mobile money to customers,” adds Evans. Innovation has become an authentic cliché as a core Looking into the future, Evans is keen on expanding branding value for pretty much any business that involves beyond pure pipe businesses. “Clearly, on a selective integrated circuits. Etisalat Nigeria is no exception, but basis, we try to weigh up opportunities that exist for us to Evans interprets innovation in a very simple way. “Innovation participate in other areas, which complement the delivery is about bringing customers the services that they find useful of voice and data; we’re also interested in areas where we and even enhancing their lifestyles.” Evans is delighted to can add value and participate in the value chain, perhaps for elaborate on two of Etisalat Nigeria’s recently launched areas like digital media, music, and video.” He goes on, “Can services – EasyAdz and EasyWallet. we participate as we do it with EasyWallet in the mobile “EasyAdz is all about enhancing brands’ ability to money market? Can we participate in the development communicate and advertise to our customer base. It’s an opt- of an advertising market which delivers advertising to the in service. If you decide to opt into the service, you give us individual as opposed to the multitude through the mobile a certain amount of information about yourself such as age, phone? It’s really about questions of selectively looking at sex and interests. That allows us in some ways to segment where we can add value or give different service providers our customer base and to offer that as an advertising access to our network in a way that’s win-win.” platform to the companies. A typical scenario is our opted- in customers getting a certain number of advertisements via SMS from some of the partnering advertisers who are Network quality stands out interested in targeting those customers.” The initial market take-up has indeed been encouraging. “This is a fascinating In Nigeria, network coverage has traditionally been a service. Even during the pilot period, we had more than a hindrance to user experience. Etisalat Nigeria placed the million customers opted into the service, despite the fact we utmost importance on network quality when they built weren’t really strongly advertising it. It’s taken off. There is a their network from scratch, and their efforts have paid lot of enthusiasm behind it.” off. Based on the Nigerian regulator’s compiled data from A more recent innovative product is a mobile money every operator’s network operation centers, and Etisalat platform called EasyWallet, launched this past September, Nigeria’s own quarterly drive-test benchmarks against where customers can carry out transactions such as all major competitors, over the fifteen quarters since the airtime top-up, money transfer, and bill payments. What EMTS launch, the operator has had the top network sets it apart from alternative mobile money services is quality for fourteen. “That speaks a lot, not only for the user-friendliness. “We offer an application which can dedication of the Etisalat team, but also the dedication of be downloaded over the air to your SIM card. It works our fine strategic partner Huawei, who has provided us on smartphones as well as most basic feature phones. It with the whole of the core network, and the majority of means all our 14 million subscribers can get access to this our radio access network. We have a fantastic relationship application. That’s the beauty of it, really. The Central with Huawei. We work very close together. I think what

DEC 2012 11 12 I think what we like about Huawei more than anything is that they would always go that extra mile to help us deliver the best quality experience in Nigeria to our customers.

we like about Huawei more than anything is that they a bit of reluctance from certain operators to share infrastructure, would always go that extra mile to help us deliver the best but relations have gradually warmed. “We’ve seen that quality experience in Nigeria to our customers.” reluctance fall away, and we’re actually working closely with Evans is aware that this is no time for complacency as he some of the operators in this area. We have a sizeable contract sees more challenges ahead related to mobile broadband. with MTN where we exchange cell sites between each other. “When people have access to mobile data services, they We think that’s a win-win for both of us. As we move forward, very quickly get used to having a good download speed. we hope we can get access to more infrastructure, because It’s critical that we are able to maintain that on a consistent I think fundamentally it’s good for us as a business. What’s basis, so customer experiences are consistent no matter good for us as a business would inevitably feed through to our what if they want to google or download something. It customers. So it’s good for our customers as well.” may sound basic, but that basic delivery of consistent Compared with infrastructure sharing, there are certainly speed is the critical factor, and our differentiator. We need more regulatory issues that keep Evans a bit wary. “It’s very to continuously improve on that.” important that when mobile operators are investing up to To do so, Evans thinks it necessary to look at the network USD500 million a year into the networks within Nigeria, comprehensively. “What’s interesting about broadband is the Nigerian regulator and Nigerian government maintain that you have to put capacity into every single part of the consistency in terms of the environment and ecosystem in chain because you are only as strong as the weakest link in which we have to live. So that means avoiding things like your chain, so it is important that we put the additional double taxation and making sure that a consistent approach capacity into all of the existing cell sites, especially into the towards mobile operators is in place; it means trying to urban areas, put the additional microwave and fiber capacity make sure the rights of way for fiber networks up and down to backhaul to main nodes in network, and then make sure the country don’t become prohibitively expensive, therefore we get sufficient access to international gateways so that we reducing the amount of redundancy in capacity within the can access the subsea cables off the Nigerian coasts, because backbone networks.” obviously, on the Internet, a lot of traffic goes offshore.” Evans is particularly concerned about the country’s Evans’ commitment to the network is evinced by unreliable power system, as the company’s services have been Etisalat’s plans to invest USD500 million next year. hit by intermittent supply and sabotage. “It’s about trying to “The investment will prioritize growing data capacity to improve the availability of power in the grid so we don’t have make sure that we are number one in terms of mobile to have 24-hour power generation as the core part of our broadband.” competence for the next ten years.” He goes further to propose some solutions to this long-lasting problem. “Hopefully, we will see some liberalization of the power generation distribution Ecosystem challenges market in a similar way that the mobile market was liberalized. This will help not just the mobile sector but industry, Despite the aggressive investment plan in place, Evans agriculture, and all the companies that are going to generate believes that the operator won’t give up on infrastructure employment for the young people in Nigeria.” sharing. When EMTS came into the market, they encountered Editor: Jason [email protected]

DEC 2012 11 12