NewStats: 3,262,101 , 8,176,072 topics. Date: Saturday, 31 May 2025 at 07:14 PM 443b5z

They have been replaced with POS now

Rapmoney:
Do you still when people used to pay for phone calls at phone booths? Then calls were charged per minute. If you make a phone call of 1 minute 3 seconds, you would be requested to pay for two minutes. I still how we were very careful then, always talking and looking at the phone screen to see that it didn't exceed the money we had budgeted to spend for the call.

Then, if someone wanted to call you, the call business operator would notify you and you stay close by so that you could receive the call through his or her phone. I think the per second billing by Glo and the reduction of the price of simcards killed this business.

Some people here may not be able to relate with these because they were born when sim cards and phones became available like sachet water. My neighbour as at then bought MTN simcard for N68,000.

OP you are a small boy.

Ask your uncles about NITEL pay phones .

That year I will a long line to make international call on a NITEL phonebooth with my prepaid 5k NITEL card to call my uncles and sisters to send me western union hundred dolls .

This was in the 90s.

Nah later I come get to hack NITEL land line to be making unlimited international calls.

My people sent me close to $5,000 plus latest FUBAR and Tommy baffs, 3 Timbs and penny loafers and Dockers slip ons.

Fun times. God I miss my teenage years.

This is the picture you are looking for

Larryfest:
#20 per minute and a second above that is also counted as a full minute.

Yes, your mind dey there bros.

SeverusSnape:
... And the most common phone for the business then was NOKIA 3310.

The phone can be used as a projectail if they stone you with it, OYO is your case

Chai! That year! Lol.

I when I was in the university, my mum called me on my hostel mate's phone. When the guy rushed to give me the phone, I placed it on my ear. As I started shouting, "hello!", "hello!", I couldn't hear what she was saying. When my guy saw how I placed the phone on my ear, he started laughing at me, saying that I should adjust the phone on my ear. I didn't know I had placed where the speaker of the phone is located way above my earlobe. Na so my matter take trend for the whole lodge say me na local boy; I nor sabi make call. And truly, that was the day I knew you have to place the speaker side of the phone directly to your ear. Lolss

Oh boy, men don monkey for this life oh!

Even the current business today will be a thing to

HelenaWills:

I bought my first MTN sim for 18k.
I didn't come across a phone until about 2 years after.

Why the hell would you buy a simcard without plans of buying a phone?

Peer pressure? or you were just following the trend

Those telecom mò.fos really ripped us.

I followed a friend to Airport Road in Benin to buy his MTN line at 30k in 2002. People were even brîbing security operatives at the gate just to enter and buy on time.

One boy tried to scale sharp pointed iron fence and his intestine got chucked - just to buy a SIM card.

The owners manual came in a very big CD pack.

Few weeks later, I bought mine at N15k in Osun and I was running a phone call biz as a side hustle then.

I could seeing a bank manager using Nokia 3310 and he was very happy seeing the phone the first time. My first phone was Sagem ol’ówo. I picked it because of the loudness of its speaker and clarity. Customers loved its clarity and lioness a lot.
Then, MTN would still force you to buy Starter Pack before you can load and make calls at a certain lower rate.

A few years later, the same SIM were been shared as souvenirs at occasions before they started selling it at N1k in Ikeja. That’s when I ventured in to the SIM biz. Some shops still owe me some money till today.
The moment I noticed the SIM biz was fading off was when they were selling it at N100 in Ikeja. I quickly stopped the SIM biz and faced only the phone call center before i divested patapata from that biz.

otipoju:
I buying my sim card for 6,000 naira and then the next week it all came crashing down to 300 naira or so.

Still dey pain me till today.

why shld it pain you that you bought a sim card for 6000 naira and others are paying peanuts for it afterward?

people like you have the suffering and exploiting mentality in their veins and bone marrows

The pain suppose kill you

Rapmoney:
Do you still when people used to pay for phone calls at phone booths? Then calls were charged per minute. If you make a phone call of 1 minute 3 seconds, you would be requested to pay for two minutes. I still how we were very careful then, always talking and looking at the phone screen to see that it didn't exceed the money we had budgeted to spend for the call.

Then, if someone wanted to call you, the call business operator would notify you and you stay close by so that you could receive the call through his or her phone. I think the per second billing by Glo and the reduction of the price of simcards killed this business.

Some people here may not be able to relate with these because they were born when sim cards and phones became available like sachet water. My neighbour as at then bought MTN simcard for N68,000.

You have to also pay money to receive calls through the call centre. It was a big business, I owned 2 locations in 2002/2003.

I bought my first Glo SIM 8,500

Before I save money buy phone

Any gen z in this thread thunder fire una. Getat! Elders are reminiscing.

Thanks to China, Nigeria is now one of the largest mobile phone market in the world.

Exousiang01:


Why the hell would you buy a simcard without plans of buying a phone?

Peer pressure? or you were just following the trend

You probably were still young.
It was a very common thing to buy a sim first, then the network antenna and lastly the phone especially if you are of the middle class or below.

free2ryhme:


why shld it pain you that you bought a sim card for 6000 naira and others are paying peanuts for it afterward?

people like you have the suffering and exploiting mentality in their veins and bone marrows

Must you quote someone??
Everything sho sho!
Kílódé!
Are you doing this for you to be noticed?

HelenaWills:

You probably are still young.
It was a very common thing to buy a sim first, then the network antenna and lastly the phone especially if you are of the middle class or below.

You're right 👍

elpochas:
So u Think he was Lying.If u don't know pls ask ur Elders to Tell u.

Don't mind him. Could when sim card was sold in a CD-like case then, with many pages of instructions on how to use it 😂😂

Gone by the days.. 😂, things have really changed..

gasparpisciotta:
That was the early days of GSM in Nigeria.

POS is the new life saver.

The entrepreneurial spirit of many Nigerians is the reason why we have not set this country on fire.

Political leaders do nothing but feed fat in the struggle of the average Nigerian.

Ibkay32:


Must you quote someone??
Everything sho sho!
Kílódé!
Are you doing this for you to be noticed?

why are you unfortunate, Did anyone ask you how much you paid for your SIM card?

The bad old days🤣.
Some dubious phone operators were using one brand of phone then ,I think it was sagem, the moment it rings ,the seconds started reading and if it took let's say a min for the receiver to pick the calls, it was counted for you as the total minutes used.
Globacom changed the industry but ironically it's the worst operator presently.

.

With the new tarrifs the business may be coming back

free2ryhme:


why are you unfortunate, Did anyone ask you how much you paid for your SIM card?

Your parents have been unfortunate since the day they gave birth to you; that’s why your life has been filled with challenges. You can never get a better life 😉

I those days. The way my mom cherished her Samsung blue light screen then ehn. If she mistakenly see you carry the phone without authorization, iku pa e.

Ibkay32:


Your parents have been unfortunate since the day they gave birth to you; that’s why your life has been filled with challenges. You can never get a better life 😉

It’s clear that misfortune seems to follow your family, and you’ve become its messenger, complaining about SIM cards dropping to ₦300. If your situation were better, you wouldn’t be making such a fuss or broadcasting this as if it’s a tragedy. 😂😂😂😂

saintmm:
That NITEL privatization is still the best privatization project we have so far in Nigeria.
It was done for the benefits of the system and not for individuals and till now we're still reaping the fruit of that well-executed privatization.
Kudos to AA. Atiku and his team for that and by extension OBJ for the approval. Even though they still performed below expectations given the prevailing circumstances as at when they were in office.

I don't really know why we lay some much emphasis on this. Obj and AA didn't do shiit. Nitel time was over... Wether they privatized it or not, wireless networks came with full strength. So assuming, Obj refuses to privatize Nitel, you think I will be using Nitel by now? All our leaders failed in there own time. When we have a successful leader, everyone will feel it instantly.

trium:
This is the picture you are looking for

The first pic is from the 60s/70s. They used coins to operate the phones.

The second pic is for the phonebooths released in the mid 90s.
Our kobo was useless by then, so we used a smartcard thing.
You buy credit from NITEL office then insert the card into the phone and talk fast.

The 3rd Pic. I was not aware of that. Maybe early 2000s.
I left Nigeria then, and when I returned there was nothing like public phone again.

free2ryhme:



It’s clear that misfortune seems to follow your family, and you’ve become its messenger, complaining about SIM cards dropping to ₦300. If your situation were better, you wouldn’t be making such a fuss or broadcasting this as if it’s a tragedy. 😂😂😂😂

What's this one saying!
Arìndìn Omo! 😂

trium:
This is the picture you are looking for

Dem good old days.

My yahoo client that year nah my uncles and big sis from another mother.

Job close when I graduate get work.

Now nah only my kids and wife dey collect benefits from my away bros and big sis.