A member of the Nairaland forum, going by the screenname ‘venorite’ wrote an open letter to Nairaland in order to complain about the upcoming blockage of Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) to non-Blackberry users which mostly comprises Android phone users.
The unedited letter from ‘venorite’ reads, “I received your sms on the planned blockage of your bis plans on non blackberry devices.Pls, i want to encourage you to simply hurry up in blocking it and see how much customers you lose. You can also ask Glo how they fared after blocking their bis on other devices cos me as a person haven’t used my Glo line since the blockage. It must be pointed out to you that i have never used my Airtel line for calls or sms but simply for surfing the net.The reason why i use it for browsing is not cos f the super fast network but cos of the cheap data and sometimes i have to buy extra data from other network providers when i have important stuffs to do online that wont allow me being patient with your crappy network. I can promise you one thing though, once this move is completed, i will never use that my Airtel Sim again and i guess it will expire after non usage for 3months.
“The surge in your customer base is cos of the cheap data that the bis provides and am sure there are peeps like me that are ready to abandon their Airtel lines once this bis is blocked. From December 4th, that is if the planned blockage goes on, it is total switch off of my Airtel line. Besides the only way you and your fellow telecom companies spend the billions you make from us is by giving Davido, Kcee and other Nigerian artist huge contracts worth millions of Naira for doing nothing, an average Nigerian that enrich you guys never gain from you guys but get scammed by the tons of sms sent to us as a means to defraud us of our hard earned money.i will also advise my family and friends to also switch off their Airtel lines as leaving it on will not be of any use to them since they do not make calls or send sms on your crappy network.i advise my fellow Nigerians to do same too. TO BE FOREWARNED IS TO BE FOREARMED.”
Airtel had sent a message out to subscribers over the weekend stating that it would block non-Blackberry device users from using BIS data plans. The deadline is expected to happen today, however it is not certain if AIRTEL has gone ahead as planned.
Many AIRTEL subscribers have complained vigorously about the move, and several threads on Nairaland have been opened to discuss the telco’s strategy.
Nairaland is Africa’s most popular indigenous website.