Hello Sunday,
Thanks for the prompt message. I was in fact hoping to get a response from
somebody in the ISP business in Nigeria! This is of course ideal, and I
would welcome responses from others as well.
We have not decided yet which provider (or providers) to use and welcome
suggestions. This is why I posted my message. I emphasise that I know little
of the state of ISPs in Nigeria. The last time I was there was 1995, and
that was to visit some NAN bureaus using EURAF's radio communications PCs,
which you may have heard of. For this project, the research has mainly been
done by our colleagues in Lagos (see CC list). In a preliminary proposal,
one option that was emphasised was to use Linkserve... but since this
included long-distance calls to Lagos from Kaduna and Abuja, we are anxious
about the phone bills--which ultimately will have to be covered by the
groups themselves.
I am not in the business of defining reliable service, but obviously the
criteria you name are important and I would be glad to receive details of
how NITEL stands, as would, I am sure, the Nigerian co-ordinator for our
project. Further, it would be interesting to know if an independent
evaluation has been done to compare the different competing ISPs in Nigeria
as is common in America and Europe? How does NITEL stand up next to its
competitors, not just in reliability but also in cost?
As far as the lasagne story goes: I have been to Nigeria before and am
looking forward to a second go at the food! I don't know the details of the
lasagne reference, but generally I try to go for the food that people eat in
the country I am in and relish the experience. Pasta is the one type of food
we cook for ourselves alot, so when out and about I tend to go for something
different. When I am in Germany, I tend to go for the "Doner Kebap", of
Turkish origin, and here in England I am trying to get used to Fish and
Chips. :-) I am glad to report, however, that the Doner is making inroads
here in Oxford. Most fish and chips vans (for they are mostly mobile) are
operated by Turks and they also serve up a mean Doner! The only problem is
that they only show up on the streets after about 11pm when the pubs close.
British fast food culture makes for a cultural experience of its own right,
but of course not to be compared with traditional Nigerian food!
Cheers,
Tobias
________________________________
Tobias Eigen
32, Court Place Gardens
Iffley
Oxford OX4 4EW
UK
tel/fax: +44 (01865) 715 013
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sunday Folayan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, February 19, 1999 10:24 PM
> To: Tobias Eigen
> Cc: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: FW: kaduna/abuja
>
>
> Hello Tobias,
>
> On Fri, 19 Feb 1999, Tobias Eigen wrote:
>
> [..]
>
> > The context is an Internet capacity-building project for human
> rights groups
> > in Nigeria. We are nearing the date when identifying a reliable
> provider is
> > becoming important to us (we expect to have the computers delivered by
> > March).
>
> On the lighter side: There is no Lasagne in Nigeria, but there is Afang,
> Edikang Ikong, and Isi Ewu. The experience should linger for a while, but
> don't over-enjoy the holiday, remember to do some work ;-).
>
> Would be interesting to know your definition of reliable? is it any or all
> of:
> 1. Customer Support?
> 2. Minimal downtime?
> 3. Multiple Access lines?
> 4. User to Modem ratio?
> 5. Bandwidth?
> 6. Throughput?
> 7. Supported Protocols/software?
> 8. Distribution of POPs?
> 9. Disaster recovery procedure?
>
> and many others?
>
> > At this stage, the cities in Nigeria we are concerned with are
> > Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kaduna.
>
> ... The Usual crowd. What about Enugu and Kano? For the cities you have
> chosen, the only beast is Port Harcourt (PH), where parts have Pulse dial,
> and others - Tone dial. God help your project if the PH office phone is
> the pulse type.
>
> > Any assistance is appreciated. I copy the message to AFRIK-IT with hopes
> > that someone else on the group might also have ideas.
>
> I suppose you must have done your survey using a of criteria.
>
> > I would be interested to hear experiences people have had with NITEL,
> > LINKSERVE and other providers in Nigeria.
>
> Or that NITEL and other providers may be plugged into AFRIK-IT?
>
> I assure you that call completion rate between the other cities is about
> 95%, while connection rate is over 99%. The trunk lines are limited, but
> they work. NITEL has come a long way, and are improving their
> infrastructure.
>
> Reading through the other mails, it seems you already have decided on what
> to do. Once you get on ground though, things will become clearer to you.
> Be of good courage, but get very nice surge suppressors (75db should do),
> and UPSs that can retain a lot of juice (Automotive Gas Oil is a bit
> scarce now ;-).
>
> Oh! remember to unplug the phone lines from the modems, when they are not
> in use, otherwise, redo your budget and move modems to the consumables
> category.
>
> Good Luck.
>
> -------------------------------------
> Sunday A. Folayan
> General Data Engineering Services Ltd
> Ibadan - Nigeria
> Office: +234-2-8105156
> Home: +234-2-8104187
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
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