GSM Matterz

It seems just like yesterday that the radical changes in the Nigerian telecommunication industry started. Prior to the emergence of mobile phones of any sorts, we were stuck with fixed phones and only the a handful of Nigerians could afford those.  Then we had NITEL staff similar to PHCN coming on a monthly basis to disconnect debtors!!!

I still remember the old phone boxes in vogue were the boxes with round dials. Our parents went the extra mile to secure their phones by buying small padlocks to secure the phones from arbitrary use.  "I no go let you send me go back village because of NITEL phone bill!!"

Even The arrival of newer phone boxes with punch buttons, did not encourage our parents to migrate because there wouldn't be any way to secure it.

Then came the mobile cellular phones and I could almost swear that only Ibo traders had that phone (No pun intended) and maybe some crooked element too ! These phones were quite expensive and large to be called mobile. You would see my Ibo brothers in the front of their shops making calls!!!

 I used to envy them. I didn't even have the phone fixed one talk less of the mobile one at that time! And the fixed phone that we later acquired in the house was passworded so you had to enter a code before you can make a call.

NITEL then made phones available to majority by making available public pre-paid card phones. I was in Ilorin at that time and I used to take a cab to post office to be able to use the public card phone and there will be a very long queue so I’d have to wait in line for several minutes just to make a 2minute call!

Then came the GSM networks in 2001 and there was a mad scramble to join the band wagon. The phone brands in vogue then were the Nokia 5110, 3310 etc, Ericsson models, Triums, Sagem etc. Those phones where the in-thing then. Monochrome screens, antenna, monophonic ring tones and could only make phone calls and send texts.

Some of the phones in vogue then

  Getting on the network then was not for the poor talk less of making calls. Phone calls were like N50/min and above while SMS cost about N30 naira abi?  Calls were charged on per minute basis and if your call drops after 2 seconds, you pay the full N50! SMH

The first set of SIM cards were so expensive .My friend Kenny got his mtn line for N21,000 and didn't have money to buy phone for another  six months. My brother got his Sagem and econet line for N16,000 (promo price). This phone ! 

I got my econet line for N4,500 and mtn much later for N3,000. The first phone I used my hard earned money to buy was a Nokia 2300 and I bought it for N14,500.  

My 1st Phone

Now enough of history and stories,

SIM cards now go for N100, yes you heard me right! N100.  So I ask:

• What happened between 2001 and 2011 that made SIM prices drop that much?
• Is it that the cost of production then was higher then?
•  Is it that cheaper materials have been discovered to make SIM cards?
• Is it that we were just ripped off back then?
• Shouldn't questions be asked? Shouldn't some refunds be made?

You might say competition made the prices drop and rightly so but getting a SIM card for N21,000 was absolutely ridiculous!

Anyways, that was then, even though things could still be much better, the industry has come a long way since then. From the monopoly (duopoly) of mtn/econet to the competition brought in by Globacom and later etisalat that have driven the prices down. I didn't mention mtel because they were never really there. How many of you had an mtel line? I did.

Now we have moved from phones that could only call and text to phones that can be regarded as mobile PC's.  Smartphone, intelligent phones, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, Blackberry, iphones, touch screens, QWERTY keypads, android, symbian etc are all words that now litter our telecoms lingo!!!

My internet is down! I guess I’ll have to publish this write-up from my mobile phone, isn't that nice?

The evolution

Have a nice time reading till I come your way again soon.

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