Ambitious with frequently innovating and feting its customers with top-class products, Smile Nigeria is set to release another range of innovative 4G LTE access devices into the Nigerian market.
The new entries include USB Wi-Fi Hotspot Dongle, SMiFi with LCD Colour Screen displaying the customer’s Smile Number and SIM Serial numbers, as well as Smile Router with multiple LAN ports.
The lightweight, portable and powerful USB Hotspot Dongle is Wi-Fi-enabled plug-and-play device, and has a Micro-SD card slot, a statement from the Chief Marketing Officer, Smile Nigeria, Abdul Hafeez, read.
According to Smile, it gives high-quality internet access when inserted in a device with a USB port, including TV, car, power-bank and phone charger, among others, and shares your internet access with up to 10 concurrent connections from other devices, while the mini-SD card could be inserted in the dongle as a storage device.
An added advantage is that no power cable is needed as the dongle gets its power from the device it is plugged into. The new USB Hotspot Dongle is popular with young professionals, students and people who are always on the move with their laptops and power banks.
People who spend a lot of time in their cars can insert the dongle into the USB port in their vehicle, creating a Wi-Fi hotspot that all the passengers can connect to for access to online entertainment to enjoy the ride and stay productive.
On the other hand, the SMiFi device with an LCD coloured screen displays a customer’s Smile number and account details to make it easy for customers to recharge and manage their Smile internet service, with the network access status also clearly visible on the LCD screen.
The device comes with a customised ring and strap to make it easy to carry, and is excellent to use while on the move, with a custom-made ring and strap included to reduce possible device damage when on the move. Customers can also easily view data usage and the number of connected devices on its LCD screen.
The Smile number display, custom-made ring and strap, data usage and connected devices display are all new features currently only available on the Smile SMiFi device. These “Smile Firsts” are in tandem with the company’s foundational philosophy of creating innovations that out-perform the existing benchmark in the Nigerian market.
The Smile Router is the third offering and has four LAN ports that can connect to a television, laptop, and two other devices. Smile disclosed that the usage and connections to the SMiFi device can be tracked, recorded and monitored.
Security-wise, these new devices offer secure and customised access, which requires the correct password to be accessed, Hafeez stated, while reiterating that these new Smile 4G LTE devices are affordable and offer flexibility and varied use for an unparalleled internet experience.
He further disclosed that the minimum battery capacity of the SMiFi and router devices is 3000mah, which provides up to five hours of usage.
On his part, a stockist at the Computer Village, Ikeja, Simeon Ebuka, stated that these latest devices are pathfinding and offer even “more firsts from Smile”.
To many ICT buffs and device aficionados, the unending innovative streak has seen the company launch many firsts, including the first 4G LTE network in 2014 in West Africa in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Innovative as they come, Smile was also the first to launch Voice-over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) in 2016 to enable consumers benefit from superior quality voice, video and data services on a single device and a single data plan. Smile is a pan-African telecommunications group with operations in Nigeria (Smile Communications Nigeria), Tanzania (Smile Communications Tanzania), Uganda (Smile Communications Uganda), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Smile Communications DRC).
