Smile Communications Nigeria Limited has received accolades from corporate chieftains in Nigeria for providing unequalled 4G LTE broadband services in the country.

The corporate chieftains made up of Chief Executives as well as Chief Information and Chief Technology Officers of large and medium organisations drawn from banks, oil & gas corporations, insurance companies, e-commerce, logistics firms among others were present at an event hosted by Smile Communications and tagged “A Connected Lifestyle”.

In unison they expressed delight that, in less than three years of launching services in Nigeria, Smile has remained dependable, providing high quality of connectivity with almost zero downtime.

Mr. Michiel Buitelaar, managing director, Smile Communications Nigeria Limited, while addressing the august assembly re-emphasized that the company, with the deployment of 4G/LTE technology that runs on 800GHz spectrum, offers the best connectivity and high network availability index in the country.

Buitelaar quoted the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Monthly Internet Subscribers Data which indicated that users on the country’s telecom networks increased to 83,362,814 as at February 2015, he added that Smile understands the type of broadband services Nigerians have been waiting for; even at a reduced price and has consistently provided them with excellent services.

He observed that it is a common thing among some operators that as more customers subscribe to their network, the quality depreciates, “but at Smile and after our successful start, we are working to ensure there is no such backlash to customers coming to the network. “We are prepared and working through densification of the network, where we see issues, we quickly address them. More so, we are deploying more capacity and the figure shows we are actually meeting our brand promise which is for everybody to get 6megabytes per second on download, even as the busy hours of the day. Our team has always been on its oars to meet the target and we don’t get congestions. In other words, we are ready to offer corporate organizations the kind of connectivity that will enhance their productivity”.

Buitelaar also applauded the Nigerian telecoms regulator; NCC “They have done a good job, which we are happy with. However, it extends to the general state of the economy. At the moment, there are some things that needed to be addressed for the growth of the digital economy. Digital economy will even make the people become more productive.

Fundamentally, the economy is very positive and will benefit a lot by becoming digital in the way it does business”. He added that the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) is already happening in Nigeria, “but I think businesses and individuals should be more open to it. We have a very innovative climate here. One will be amazed with the number of people, vehicles and machines hooking up and finding new ways of doing business”.

On her part, Mrs. Alero Ladipo, Smile Communications’ chief marketing officer noted that after two years in operations, the network session with CEOs, CTOs and CIOs of major firms operating in Nigeria was to alert the participants about “our service offering and how we can help reduce their costs”.

Speaking through Mr. Chiekezi Dozie, head of Corporate & Enterprises Sales Ladipo enthused; “We are the ultimate 4G/LTE Company in the country at the moment. We use 800GHz spectrum which itself offers efficiency for mobile communications. It is a pure IP network. So, we can do corporate voice, data, and can make life very simple for them. The era we are in, people are increasingly engaging in mobile communications; therefore, we have MiFis, mobile and fixed solutions to cover the whole gamut of corporate requirements.

“The testimonials are out there. Apart from the fact that our network is very fast even at reduced cost, we have had a couple of tests with some automated teller machines (ATM). We compared the network on the ATMs with machines in other networks. A normal ATM with a different connectivity provider records about 43 seconds speed on transaction. But with our network such transaction was done in 23 seconds. That’s an improvement on customer experience.  “As a technology, we know that no technology is 100 per cent proof. So, we have SLAs that ensure the services are at 99.9 assurances. Through our managed services, we monitor the networks and we have a very experienced backroom team at Smile”. She said the company will continue to roll-out services in other cities, eyeing a nation-wide service provisioning in no distant time.

Testifying about the functionality and ubiquity features of the Smile network, Mr. Muyiwa Faulkner from Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc. said that Smile Communications represents unique network connectivity with innovation.

“It offers internet that is fast, especially when you need it. A lot of times, people don’t know the difference between good and great. I think Smile’s connectivity is great,” Faulkner said.

To Kayode Osolaja, of First Bank, “Smile has come with a difference.

Apart from the services, the customer-support (service) has been superb. They don’t keep you waiting and wailing”.

Smile Communications Nigeria Limited was founded in 2007 with the transformative objective of using the best and most innovative technologies to provide its customers with high quality, easy to use and affordable communication services.

Its vision and mission is to be the broadband provider of choice in Nigeria and enable its customers to fully benefit from the Internet world.

Smile launched West Africa’s first true 4G LTE network in Ibadan in 2013 thereby revolutionizing the way people access the Internet.