Frost & Sullivan: ipNX ranked ahead of Nigeria’s broadband curve

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Nigeria’s ipNX has won a Frost & Sullivan Award for its deployment of fibre to the home (FTTH) broadband network that positioned the country among a few African countries using the triple play service.

Based on its recent analysis of the fibre-optic convergence service market, Frost & Sullivan recognised ipNX with the 2014 Nigerian Frost & Sullivan Award for Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership.

[su_quote cite=”Frost & Sullivan”]in addition to its FOS package, ipNX launched its IP Television (IPTV) in 2014, which means that consumers get a consolidated bill for Internet, telephony and IPTV services. This service will make the company Nigeria’s first multi-service operator to deliver Triple-play services (Internet, television and telephony).[/su_quote]

“The company has consistently remained ahead of the technology curve by implementing forward-looking growth and market penetration strategies. Its deployment of fibre to the home (FTTH) broadband infrastructure has positioned it as an innovation leader in the Nigerian market”, Frost & Sullivan said.

Nigeria’s ipNX, one of the leading ISPs in the country delivers a range of communications services on its Internet Protocol (IP) network via fibre and microwave radio communications technologies. In 2013, it was the first Nigerian network provider to deploy a FTTH network covering the three major cities of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt in Nigeria.

“The launch of ipNX’s FTTH networks placed Nigeria in a league of a select group of African countries offering the FTTH network technology,” Naila Govan-Vassen , Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst says. “The bandwidth upgrade also improved customer experience with the company’s fibre optic service (FOS) and eventually, strengthened the ipNX brand and position as a market leader.”

According to Frost & Sullivan, the Nigerian ISP “has astutely overcome the challenges associated with the lack of reliable power supply by employing gigabyte passive optic network (GPON).”

The architecture uses passive (unpowered) optical splitters between ipNX’s point of presence and the customer’s location. As there is no active device that depends on power, this architecture incurs lower costs on equipment than point-to-point architectures, Frost & Sullivan adds.

“Meanwhile, as the high costs of Right Of Way (ROW) were translating to high broadband service costs for customers, ipNX strategically sought to lower costs by spear-heading an advocacy group that obtained  the government’s buy-in. This decision paid off, with ROW charges decreasing drastically from $300 to $50 per metre and ultimately, enabling the company to offer reliable and more cost-effective services to customers.”

According to Govan-Vassen, “in addition to its FOS package, ipNX launched its IP Television (IPTV) in 2014, which means that consumers get a consolidated bill for Internet, telephony and IPTV services. This service will make the company Nigeria’s first multi-service operator to deliver Triple-play services (Internet, television and telephony).”

ipNX has built a content delivery platform and network infrastructure with enough capacity to retransmit and distribute both live TV and video on-demand content in an exceptionally reliable, secure and efficient manner. Significantly, customers will be able to enjoy uninterrupted service, as ipNX TV runs on fibre-optic cable technology, which, unlike satellite service, is not affected by rainfall and other inclement weather conditions.

Frost & Sullivan commented that the Nigerian company ensures that it creates a seamless service experience at all times by establishing numerous feedback mechanisms.

“It has a call centre that runs 24×7, and the calls are reviewed every month to glean data regarding customer patterns. Furthermore, to ensure transparency, the company has an intranet portal and video conferencing (tele-presence) platform, which its executive team uses to communicate with employees internally.”

For distinguishing itself in the fibre-optic convergence service market by being the first-to-market with FTTH technologies, ipNX has earned the 2014 Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award in the Nigerian market, according to the consultancy.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has leveraged competitive intelligence to successfully execute a competitive strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning and customer satisfaction.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.