[ad_1]
Google on Thursday launched a network of free Wi-Fi hotspots in Nigeria, as part of its efforts to increase its presence in the most populous nation of Africa. The American technology company owned by Alphabet Inc. has partnered with 21st Century, a Nigerian provider of cable networks, to provide its public Wi-Fi service, Google Station, in six locations in the commercial capital Lagos, including: 39, airport of the city. relatively low in Nigeria. According to World Bank Data, 25.7% of the population used the Internet in 2016. The mediocre internet infrastructure is a major challenge for companies operating in the country, which is the largest oil producer in Africa. Broadband services are either unreliable or unaffordable for many of Nigeria's 190 million inhabitants.
"We are deploying service today in Lagos, but we plan to expand it quickly to other sites," said Anjali Joshi, Reuters vice president at Lagos
. company said it 's intention to collaborate with Internet service providers to reach millions of Nigerians in 200 public spaces, in five cities by the end of 2019.
There said that it would generate cash from the service in Nigeria by placing Google ads in the login portal. Google has not disclosed the amount invested in the new Nigerian service.
The technology company announced that it plans to share its revenues with its partners to help them maintain and deploy the Wi-Fi service, without disclosing the expected advertising revenues. 19659002] Africa's rapid population growth, declining data costs and the mbadive adoption of mobile phones have made it an attractive investment prospect for technology companies.
Nigeria is the fifth country to launch Google Station. Similar services have been launched in India, Indonesia, Mexico and Thailand.
The service is intended for countries with rapidly expanding populations. The United Nations estimates that Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world, after China and India, by 2050.
"Many people who find that the data are too expensive for use them use it, "said Joshi. "In India, we have tens of millions of users and nearly a million in Mexico.
However, many do not reveal how much the continent 's markets are profitable or whether they are making money to companies.
Last year, Google announced plans to train 10 million Africans to online skills within five years. Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visited Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley this month to meet with Managing Director Sundar Pichai.
© Thomson Reuters 2018
<! –
->
Source link
