Airtel appears determined to lead the GSM sub-sector. Still fresh is  its recent deal with Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The offer, 'O.freebasics.com' which made headlines affords internet users free surfing of popular websites from  their phones on O.freebasics.com

But as if keeping back the best for the last, Airtel's  latest promo,'Speedo', has unsettled 
its competitors. Consumers are rushing the freebie laden offer like hot akara, says market reports.

 From the market feedback so far, Airtel has since surged to the top of voice and data recharge 
business with the blast off of this latest promo. Speedo's visuals half told the story.

In an environment where reliabililty as in 'data-on-the-go' appeals more to consumers, Speedo's
visuals seemed more like a hyperbole. Like one respondent noted, the visuals will appeal more to  young and young at heart, than those desperate for reliable data network.

Indeed the visuals left little to the imagination. It shows a combo
inter-ballistics missiles, IBM blasting through a handset. The background being  of course
 the network's corporate rouge colours.

The copy of the promo describes SmartSpeedo as a 4g speed experience. "You have never
felt data like this before! It teases the consumer.

And the pay-off: "Experience the power of real data. Dial *141# to get free internet in 
your hands!"

Indeed, 'free' captures the soul of the promo. For now, Airtel is offering more freebies
than its competitors, and may comfortably pace the voice and data recharge business sub-sector,
until the competition betters their offerings.

How is Airtel offering more freebies than the competition?
From on-going  promotions embarked on by the GSM service providers, there is consensus what to charge for certain mb of data especially for handheld devices. For instance, 
there is unanimity among the service providers that with N1000, one gets 1.5gb data. 
Also three of the service providers sells 3.5gb for N2000. Across board, this is a vast improvement, considering that a few weeks back, N2000 could only fetch 1.5gb data.

Thus, from the mean figures of N1000 and N2000, price will therefore not be the topmost consideration  in the  choice of network to use for data. For those who use data more for business, speed and  clarity would certainly be high considerations.

Already Airtel is leading in speed, consistency and clarity in data recharge and usage.
Indeed, consumer survey rates Airtel and one other network as the top-dogs in provision of consistent, reliable  and efficient data. 

Across board again, heavy users of data for business, especially those using hand-held devices and modem unequivocally  agree that Airtel is  the dominant provider of reliable data. Reliable interpreted as data one can bank on.

Sure there are other networks that had been more than generous with its data offer, but their services are so unreliable that they are referred to as 'touch and go'. For cyber space citizens where loss in  micro seconds would mean loss in millions of Naira nothing would be more frustrating than when tapping ' 'send' yields no response
For the high networth users, Airtel's Speedo may not mean much in terms of Naira saved. The promo therefore  must be targeted at the mass market, where every kobo.counts. The mass market usage may be in kobos, but these kobos soon add up to much Naira. A portion of the mass market may  not really be overtly concerned  about speed as most usage is for pleasure. But there is also a portion of this market that can be  referred to as the small-micro enterprise, SME on the internet, here speed, consistency and reliability must count.
Speedo sums up Airtel's arithmetic. The sum being to capture the high networth, the pleasure seeking mass market  and the penny pinching SME data users.

It is only from that perspectives one can appreciate Speedo's offer of N5000 for every N1000 investment in Airtel recharge. A breakdown shows that with the N1000 recharge,  one gets 1.5bg data, valued at N1400, airtell-to -airtel voice rechage valued at N2600 and N1000 voice recharge to call all other networks.

A N500 recharge offers N1300 Airtel-to-Airtel voice call, 500 mb data valued at N700 and N500 voice recharge for  other networks all for seven days. This trickles down to N200, N300 recharges and N100 recharge where one gets  N250 for Airtel-to-Airtel recharge, 50mb data valued at N150 and N100 to call other networks, this lasts only  one day.

Airtel is also offering  absolutely free data up to 160mb for internet surfing

From all indications, Speedo may be the catalyst that would demolish all odds to make Airtel GSM market leader, but that is the competition goes to sleep over this offer. But the rash of promos and freebies as they try to outdo each other shows nobody is sleeping on the job. Nonetheless, Airtel leads the pack for now.