Technology
Banks to Handover 9mobile to New Buyer January 16
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
There are strong indications that come Tuesday, January 16, 2018, the new owner of troubled 9mobile would emerge and made known to the general public.
This is because the issuer of the operating licence of the debt ridden telecoms firm, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which is also the regulatory agency for the industry, has insisted that deadline for the sale of the company would not go beyond January 16.
December 31, 2017 was earlier fixed for the unveiling of the new owner of 9mobile, but the process was not concluded then, which necessitated the postponement.
However, NCC said the new date would not be extended again.
The regulatory agency made this clarification following reports online that the sale of 9mobile had been extended to February 16, 2018.
Executive Commissioner in charge of Stakeholders Management at the NCC, Mr Sunday Dare, stressed that January 16 remains the final judgement day.
Financial Advisors of the deal, Barclays Africa, has shortlisted five firms, one of which would emerge the preferred bidder for the telecommunications firm.
The final five top bidders are Airtel, Globacom, Smile Communications, Teleology Holdings Limited and Helios Investment Partners.
Teleology Holdings Limited is being promoted by pioneer Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Adrian Wood; Smile Telecoms Holdings, an operator in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo DR and South Africa; and Helios Investment Partners LLP, an investment company.
Others are Bharti Airtel, promoters of Airtel Nigeria and Mike Adenuga’s Globacom. Airtel and Globacom are the only Nigerian operators on the list.
It was gathered that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NCC and the lending 13 banks, led by GTBank Plc, would decide on a preferred and reserve bidders.
Last week, Business Post reported that Globacom may lose out of the deal because of some issues; however, there are strong indications that two of the bidders may consider consolidation.
This, according to Mr Dare, is in the best interest of the industry and may play a key role in determining who finally gets to buy the nation’s fourth largest telecommunications operator.
“Nigeria can learn a lot from the Indian telecoms experience of consolidation and market competition in the development of the telecoms market. The consumer in India now enjoys lots of benefits and cheap data,” he told TheCable.
9mobile, formerly Etisalat Nigeria, secured a syndicated loan of $1.2 billion from 13 Nigerian banks to expand its operations in the country.
However, the firm was later unable to meet up with the repayment plan.
This had earlier forced the banks to take over the company, but the CBN and the NCC prevented this from happening so as not to send a wrong signal to foreign investors.
A new management was set up to run the firm for six months pending the time a new buyer was found.
Since its troubles started, the network and its services have not been the same again, leaving its over 15 million subscribers frustrated.
Since its debt impasse, 9mobile has lost over one million subscribers. The sale of the company, which would result into injection of capital into the firm, might revive it and make it compete well again with other operators in the country.
9mobile, then as Etisalat Nigeria, joined the industry as the fourth in 2009 and shook the sector by storm with the strategy of allowing subscribers choose their unique phone numbers.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Thursday, July 23, 2026, provided an opportunity for financial services professionals to converge on Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, to brainstorm on ways to meet the rising customers’ expectations.
The platform used for this purpose was Core by Interswitch. It is part of the company’s broader commitment to strengthening Africa’s digital payments ecosystem by fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing and operational excellence across the financial services value chain.
At the event, participants, numbering over 400, also highlighted the growing importance of operational excellence in sustaining resilient payment infrastructure.
As digital financial services continue to expand across Africa, closer collaboration among financial institutions, fintechs and payment service providers will be essential to improving responsiveness, resolving operational challenges more effectively and delivering consistently reliable customer experiences.
The Executive Vice President for Operations and Technology at Interswitch, Mr Babafemi Ogungbamila, said the forum reflects the company’s belief that exceptional customer experiences are built not only on innovative technology but also on the expertise, collaboration and commitment of the professionals who keep payment systems running every day.
“Every successful digital transaction is powered by professionals whose work often goes unseen but is fundamental to building trust in digital payments. Core by Interswitch was created to recognise their contribution, strengthen collaboration across the industry and create opportunities for shared learning that ultimately benefit financial institutions and the customers they serve.
“As digital payments continue to evolve, investing in the people and processes that power the technology is just as important as investing in the technology itself,” Mr Ogungbamila said.
Beyond recognising the professionals whose work often goes unnoticed, the programme underscored the value of creating stronger connections across the payments ecosystem.
By creating a dedicated platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration and professional development, Core by Interswitch aims to build a more connected community of payments operations professionals equipped to respond to the evolving demands of the digital economy.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
WhatsApp has been updated with a web calling feature, allowing users to now make and receive audio and video calls, both one-on-one and group, directly from WhatsApp Web.
A notice from the Meta-owned messaging platform disclosed that this feature works without the need to download any app.
It was disclosed that this update was made to WhatsApp to make it easier for users to make calls wherever they are and on whatever device, phone or laptop.
Users will have access to features available on their other devices, including screen sharing, reactions, and a dedicated Calls tab with full call history and favourites, all from their browsers.
WhatsApp noted that calls from this feature are end-to-end encrypted, with no time limits and at no cost, as it is the same private experience they expect from the platform.
WhatsApp has also been embedded with easy call transfer, enabling the movement of an active group call from one device to another without hanging up. Users can seamlessly transfer calls to WhatsApp Web or Desktop when they arrive home to collaborate on a larger screen – or vice versa.
The platform further said it now has QuickHD, which allows for an improved video experience at the beginning of a call. With QuickHD, users can now enjoy high-definition video immediately in the very first few seconds of the call.
In addition, it has launched noise suppression to remove the background noise around callers so their voices come through clearly to the person on the other end, even in loud or busy environments. This can be managed at any time in in-call settings.
WhatsApp said these features are rolling out gradually and will be available to everyone soon, expressing its desire to make WhatsApp calling simpler to use.
Modded Minecraft worlds take weeks to build. Custom biomes, terraformed landscapes, established bases — losing any of it to a corrupted chunk or a failed update is devastating. Backups aren’t optional for modded servers. They’re essential.
Modded hosting with reliable backups protects everything players have built across every minecraft biome types the pack introduces — without requiring manual backup routines that nobody remembers to run.
Why Modded Worlds Are More Vulnerable to Data Loss
Vanilla Minecraft worlds are relatively stable. Modded worlds have more ways to break. Mod updates can corrupt chunk data if block IDs change. Crashes during chunk generation leave partial files. Automated farms that run while no players are online can cause chunk-level issues over time.
Biomes added by mods require extra care. Changing biome mods later can cause unexpected problems. If the old biome data no longer exists, Minecraft may not know how to read parts of the world anymore. The Minecraft Wiki explains that every generated chunk keeps its own biome information in the save. Modded biomes require their mod to be present to load correctly — removing the mod without migrating chunks first causes permanent data loss in those areas.
Minecraft Biome Types: What Mods Add
People often focus on giant mountains or rare structures, but smaller biome changes matter too. A carefully designed minecraft grass biome can completely change the appearance of an entire region. Once that combines with improved forests, rivers, and mountain generation, exploration naturally takes longer because there’s almost always another interesting place nearby. There’s a massive difference once biome mods are installed. Biomes O’ Plenty alone adds over 80 biomes. Terralith adds another 95 plus, although it still builds worlds using Minecraft’s regular generation system rather than a custom one. Oh The Biomes You’ll Go adds tropical and fantasy biomes not found in either.
Each of these creates a richer world to explore — and more unique terrain to protect. A player who spends two sessions exploring and settling in a modded cherry blossom grove loses something irreplaceable if that chunk gets corrupted without a backup.
Content creator and modpack player Noxite has described modded biome exploration as one of the most memorable experiences in the game — “every new biome feels like discovering a location that exists only in your world.” Backups protect that discovery.
Many players only start thinking about backups after something goes wrong. It’s surprisingly easy for a modded world to develop problems. Maybe the server restarts halfway through chunk generation, or a mod update changes world data in a way the old save no longer understands. Even experienced server owners don’t get through every update without issues. Sometimes everything looks fine until someone explores a new biome and discovers broken chunks. At that point, having a recent backup is usually the simplest solution instead of trying to repair damaged terrain piece by piece.
What a Reliable Backup System Looks Like for Modded Servers
For modded worlds, backup requirements go beyond vanilla minimums:
- Daily automated backups — at minimum; hourly for active community servers
- Full world backups — not just player data; entire world folder including all dimensions
- Pre-update snapshots — automatic backup triggered before any mod or server update
- Offsite storage — backups stored separately from the server to survive hardware failure
- Easy restoration — one-click restore to a specific backup without technical support
Protecting Every Biome You’ve Explored
Minecraft biomes wiki entries for modded biomes often include notes about save compatibility across versions. The community’s experience is consistent: mod updates break worlds more often than player actions do. Regular backups are the only reliable protection.
Choose modded hosting with reliable backups that runs automatically, stores multiple restore points, and makes restoration simple. The time investment in setting up proper backups is always less than the time lost rebuilding after a preventable data loss event.
