CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
The development of telecommunication in Nigeria began in 1886 when a cable connection was established between Lagos and the colonial office in London by 1893, government office in Lagos were provided with telephone service, which was later extended to Ilorin and Jebbu in the hinterland. A slow but steady process of development in the years that followed led to the gradual formation of the nucleus of a national telecommunication network.
In 1923, the first commercial trunk telephone service between Itu and Calabar was established. Between 1946 and 1952, a Three-Channel – Line Carrier system was commissioned between Lagos and Ibadan and was extended to Oshogbo, Kaduna, Kano, Benin, and Enugu; thus connecting the colonial office in London with Lagos and the commercial centre in the country with local authority offices. In 1960s the network system was expanded to meet growing needs of the fledging commercial and industrial communication network system.
In the 1980s, the telecommunication arm of the department of Post and Telecommunication was merged with the Nigerian External Telecommunication (NET) and in 1985 the Nigerian Telecommunication Ltd (NITEL), a Limited Liability Company that administers both internal and external telecommunication services in Nigeria was formed.
Currently, NITEL offers the following services, telephony, telex and telex delivery services, telegraph and registered telegraphic addresses, payphones, and public coin telephones, transmission and reception of real-time TV for network services etc, Nigeria embraced digital Technology since the 1980 with the ratio of Digital Switches and Transmission System (Radio and Optic Fibre), into the network since the beginning of the 90s, mobile Telephone Services offered by NITEL. NITEL now has an X 25 and X 40 Switching facilities in its network.
Today, however, to a population of one hundred million (100m) the figure of more than half a million on telephone lines in the country means in effect, a very low telephone density ratio, though the country has the largest number of telephones in any one country in Africa.
MTN Entrance into Nigerian Telecommunication Sector
The MTN Group Limited (MTN Group) is a leading provider of communication services offering cellular network access and business solutions, and is listed in South-Africa on the Johannesburge Securities exchange (JSE) under the Industrial Telecommunication Sector launched in 1994, MTN Group is a Multinational Telecommunication provider with its core operations in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.
MTN Nigeria began operations in Nigeria on May 16th, 2001. MTN Nigeria was the first GSM Network to make a call following the globally landed Nigerian GSM auction conducted by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC).
Therefore, the company launched full commercial operations beginning with Lagos, Abuja, and Port-Harcourt and since then it has spread their network to every State in Nigerian Federation (Uyo included).
1.2 Statement of Problem
In Nigeria today, consumers are faced with many competiting variables of telecommunication network to choose from. In case of GSM Service providers, we have Airtel, Globacomm, MTN, Starcomm, Zoom, NITEL, Etisalat etc.
Meanwhile, advertisements are no longer geared towards sensitizing the public about the usefulness of the product or products so advertised; it is now been used as a tool for propaganda and extortion of the public / consumers. MTN was, in 2009 summoned by the House of Representative in Nigeria to defend itself against claims that it is extorting the Nigerian populace.
Matter of factly, advertisement ensures or does the following; enhances sales, creates awareness about a new product, satisfies the consumers need for quality, educates consumes about how a product can be used, influences consumer’s choices etc.
Therefore, it is against this backdrop that the researcher therefore, intends to find out or answer the question: Has MTN advertisement impacted its subscribers in Uyo Metropolis?