A few weeks ago, Glo scored quite a few cool points, for introducing what in Nigeria must be described as innovative – a data sharing feature that allows you turn your Glo data plan into a nationwide hotspot that can support five other Glo subscribers anywhere in Nigeria.
Just like when they led the way with per second billing in 2003, we knew that if Glo could do it, so could the others. Only a matter of time before the familiar telco game of monkey see, monkey do, would begin.
And sure enough, it looks like it has. It’s hard to say for how long, but MTN definitely has a data sharing feature too — only they’re not making a lot of noise about it. Instead, they’ve bundled it as one of their business service solutions and appear to be marketing it only to their enterprise customers on a post-paid plan.
And even if you fall into the eligible target audience, there also doesn’t seem to be any straightforward way to access it. You have to call some number for more information, and when I tried, I got a machine that said something about not being available. I want to believe it’s because the holidays are here.
Does MTN intend to make this feature available to their mainstream customer base anytime soon? We’ll just have to wait and see. But we now know that they can. I hope Glo enjoyed their 15 minutes of coolness, because it’s obviously about to be over.
Now if only Etisalat would hurry up and copy these guys.
Thanks, Nelson Isibor.
