Cost of internet service in Nigeria

Posted by Felix Okoli on Sunday January 11, 2015 at 14:3:5:

How much does internet service cost to users in Nigeria? How much do subscribers pay to access the web either with their phones or their computers?

Internet service is one of the things Nigerians in the 21st century now pay for as it's becoming more of a necessity than a luxury. Nowadays, people use the internet to communicate, send messages, do projects, gain knowledge and also stay entertained.

Now, there are many internet service providers in Nigeria and also many internet plans offered by these providers. Some of their plans are designed for low end users while some are designed for high end users. Some internet plans come with a data limit while some are time based. I'll just review some of the ones I've come to know and how much they cost in Nigeria.

Types of internet service available in Nigeria:

- Data based plans
- Unlimited data or time based plans

Data based plans are those internet plans being offered to subscribers based on the amount of data they can download. It could be in terms of 1GB, 2GB or even 10GB. Based on my observation, it appears that it costs about N1000 for a 1GB data plan but it gets discounted as a subscriber buys more data and costs more when he buys less. It is mostly targeted at home users or low budget users and it's the most common type of internet service available in Nigeria.

Unlimited data plans are those internet plans available to subscribers in Nigeria without a data limit meaning that they can download as much as they want over a specified period of time e.g. 1 hr, 1 week or 1 month. It is normally a more expensive and relatively scarce service in Nigeria and designed mostly for businesses.

Limited data plans
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SWIFT Budget plus: This is a data based internet package offered by Swift Networks and it costs N2,000 per month for 1GB of data.

Glo always macro: This is a plan offered by Glo Nigeria and it works with a Glo sim which can be used on a gsm phone or hspda device. It costs about N3,000 per month for 1.5GB worth of data. To subscribe, sms 54 to 127.

Glo always max: Glo always max is one of the internet data plans offered by Glo and this costs N8,000 per month for 8GB worth of data. To subscribe, sms 12 to 127.

Smile 1GB bundle: Smile communications offers a 1GB bundled internet data plan for N1,800 and this has an expiration period of 30 days.

MTN 1.5GB data plan: MTN Nigeria has a mobile data plan of 1.5GB that costs N3500 to subscribers. To subscribe, an MTN customer has to sms 111 to 131.

MTN Hynet 4GB plan: MTN Nigeria offers a data based internet plan that costs N4000 for 4GB with a validity period of 30 days and a speed of 2MBPs. This translates to about N1,000 per GB.

Etisalat 1 GB data plan: Etisalat Nigeria has a 1 GB data plan that they offer for N2,000 which lasts for 30 days. To subscribe, an Etisalat customer has to sms MB3 to 229

Airtel Smartphone 2: Airtel has a mobile data plan that costs N3000 for 1GB and it has a validity period of 30 days. To get this, the Airtel customer just had to sms Smart2 to 141.

Unlimited data/Time based plans:
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iPNX mini plan: This is an unlimited data plan offered by iPNX Nigeria that allows up to 10 users have access to the internet for 24 hrs a day for up to 30 days at a cost of N60,000.

MTN Hynet 7 days unlimited data plan: This is an internet service MTN offers to Hynet users at a speed of 2MBps and allows users to browse the internet for up to 7 days without a data limit.

MTN Hynet 2MBps unlimited data plan: This plan allow subscribers on MTN Hynet to browse for up to a month without a data cap and at a speed of 2MBps all at a cost of N52,700.

Summary
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I have to say that from my experience so far, the least cost one can pay in Nigeria as at this date for a internet service for 1GB per month is about N1,000(about $5) on the average but the big question a subscriber should answer before subscribing for service is to first determine how much data he needs per month. Some don't use up to 1 GB per month while others need as much as 10 GB. Also, the maximum speed I've seen for consumers is just under 2MBps.