It’s Data Wars In Nigeria And Airtel Is Winning

There was a time when 1,000 could only get you 200mb at best on any decent network. Honestly, these times were simple, all you needed was money. After years of throwing away money to the likes of MTN who had pretty sweet internet connection but over the top prices and Airtel who was considerably cheap but very unstable network connection, Nigerians got fed up, at least I know I did.

To our rescue came Mobile wifi routers; first swift then spectranet then smile. Anyone who uses internet for anything serious wouldn’t mind paying through their teeth for internet connection that good; it was 4G LTE after all.

It seemed all was good again, internet users happy. But then something happened. It all started this year and it all started with a network you wouldn’t even think could make it happen.

MTN decided and said ‘you know what, screw this, let’s have a party’, and just like that, MTN subscribers like me could get 1.5GB for 1000 naira, 3.5GB for 2,000 and 10GB for 5,000.

Scary right, the one network who hadn’t changed their plans in years decided to slash prices. I’m sure you can guess what came after, the only network people actually use because of internet decided to join the madness, Airtel raised the bar with this one allowing customers get 4GB for 2,000 and 9GB for 3,500. I actually thought, maybe…just maybe i should have stuck around with Airtel a little longer.

It actually does get better than that. Etisalat came with a crazy offer, and believe me, unlike most other networks, Etisalat’s promotions come with no strings attached and their network can only be matched by MTN’s. 1.5GB for 1,000, 3.5GB for 2,000, and 6.5GB for 3,500. At this point, intensity had intensified and nobody knew what to do… Well that was until Glo decided to end the campaign once and for all, 10GB for 2,500… Doesn’t make any sense to you yeah? Well, me too.

6GB for 2,000

2GB for 1,000

And the mother of all data giveaways, 10GB for 2,500.

You might think that’s all but there’s talks of Airtel selling 11GB for just 2,000.

Picking a mobile data plan just became pretty stressful but it’s the kind of stressful I like