NewStats: 3,263,492 , 8,180,321 topics. Date: Friday, 06 June 2025 at 08:54 AM 3m72h

Oluwabugyyolo:
SIM card 68k

This one just identified himself as one of the kids on Nairaland. Sim card that was even 70k!

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

I still love that phone

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

The king of phones that time.Some people collected loan to buy this phone.

HelenaWills:

I could swear this was more common.

Nokia , Samsung and Sagem

I did this business. Omo! I have hustled in this life. It's well.

wiseone28:
Even the current business today will be a thing to

thiefnu-ibu ànd his army of yorrobanza 40 thieves don destroy everything.even the pos sef no too dey bring profit o na just to keep busy

Exousiang01:


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

Peer pressure? or you were just following the trend

He's lying . You can't buy a sim card back then without a sagem phone

My first phone and line was a sagem Econet lime and I paid about 40k for it.

It pains me till this day that I lost that line as its now bragging rights for awon Lagos big boys.

RealityKings1:
Before opening this thread, I somehow knew the particular business it would be about. Wow

Me too. It was as if I had some special powers when I clicked and saw it was what I was thinking.

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.

One day one day POS business will go that way too...

How times fly hah i i have sim card but i don't have phone i always save my sim card inside my dad book i can crown your phone for head and go and save it at home then i can that i know that i save like hundred phone numbers for head thank God for life

Back in those days most people don't know how to end the call, yet they will go far away from the phone man and after the call,they will tear race to meet the phone man who takes some few seconds to announce the duration to you!

AntiZikist:


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.

Stop showing yourself! The post is about GSM technology. You are equally a small boy if that is the case because before NITEL pay phone it used to be landlines at homes, very few people could afford it. When I have a call my neighbor who had it will come and call me to receive my calls and I will remain in his flat for some time in case of call back. Back then it was exclusively for the rich and they hardly use it for business.
That was very common in the 70's to 80's.

AntiZikist:


He's lying . You can't buy a sim card back then without a sagem phone

My first phone and line was a sagem Econet lime and I paid about 40k for it.

It pains me till this day that I lost that line as its now bragging rights for awon Lagos big boys.

Lying?
You apparently were too young at the time.

I'm talking of when you needed an antenna to get network not when every dog and Harry could make calls anywhere.

HelenaWills:

I bought my first MTN sim for 18k, it came with a big case like that of a compact disc of old.
I didn't come across a phone until about 2 years after.

me na phone I first buy, Ericson product, come buy glo sim for 6k after some months

HelenaWills:

Lying?
You apparently were too young at the time.

I'm talking of when you needed an antenna to get network not when every dog and Harry could make calls anywhere.

Sharap.

Are you talking of NITEL cellular network that every time you make a call it radiates class B radiation on your brain? This isn't GSM .

GSM is not cellular and back then both my dad and mom had those including our digital NITEL land phones . We even had fax machine at home back then as my dad was into imports them and he received his invoice through it. I can tell you that we were one of the first to get a dial up connection then.

I no be your mate.

DeOTR:
POS will also become a thing of the past. It's a matter of fews years.

yeah very right. Pos still my life saver but am already planning for the downfall, it may come sooner

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

That's when it's becoming cheaper , it started between 50-70 naira then

Lol.
To be honest, people lived without phones many years ago. And if you interrogate those people in a conversation about their lives then, they will tell you that their life during that time(without phone) was the best. The same thing with us now. We are going to tell the younger generation that our living now was the best. Probably, the next generation in many years to come, will have invented something more sophisticated than phone.

Just imagine how the world will be in the year "2125"

GanagiBitrus:

The way our lives revolve around phones now, sometimes I wonder how we managed to survive when there were no phones.

AntiZikist:


He's lying . You can't buy a sim card back then without a sagem phone

My first phone and line was a sagem Econet lime and I paid about 40k for it.

It pains me till this day that I lost that line as its now bragging rights for awon Lagos big boys.

No he's not lying I my first SIM card before getting my phone. And there were other phones than sagem. I had Bosch a flip phone and uncommon too. It was a gift from one of my bro I dey hustle with back then. It's not a requirement to have a phone before dey sell SIM card for U. Stop claiming

goslowgoslow:

Stop showing yourself! The post is about GSM technology. You are equally a small boy if that is the case because before NITEL pay phone it used to be landlines at homes, very few people could afford it. When I have a call my neighbor who had it will come and call me to receive my calls and I will remain in his flat for some time in case of call back. Back then it was exclusively for the rich and they hardly use it for business.
That was very common in the 70's to 80's.

Another hater.

Should I go back to my grand dad having the first office with a Morse code telegram equipped office in Lagos ,Nigeria ?

We mo be mates.

dkidd:

No he's not lying I my first SIM card before getting my phone. And there were other phones than sagem. I had Bosch a flip phone and uncommon too. It was a gift from one of my bro I dey hustle with back then. It's not a requirement to have a phone before dey sell SIM card for U. Stop claiming

The earliest SIM purchase came with a phone that was tied to the provider being Econet.

This is facts.

RealityKings1:
Before opening this thread, I somehow knew the particular business it would be about. Wow

Lol. Exactly what I thought too. I bought my sim like six months before I got a phone...so much for "good old days". Lol.

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.

My Dad got Mtn for me & my bro at the rate of 20k then.. Finding netwrk hard mining diamond🤣💔

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.

You just have to throw jab on political leaders even when its not necessary to get LIKES

Do you think that business of POS and phone boot will thrive without government Cashless policy and creating enabling environment for communication cables.

That is what we always tell people that,government doesn't give job but create environment for people to thrive

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.

The bold has always been driving force behind Nigerians Labour force and not politicians or government.

How many people can government employ?

Ibkay32:


What's this one saying!
Arìndìn Omo! 😂

Pele o olowo oloro😂😂😂

The times when people stood outside to 'catch network'

I while as a kid in ibadan, coming back home with the electrician I went to call to fix some things in the house .
The electrician was igbo. A certain yoruba woman( teacher) was walking in front and the way she held her phone up in a ' let the world see me' fashion and making loud calls made the electrician pissed.

He nudged me and was like.. 'See am ye ye.. She dey do yanga with gsm)

Apparently, he had not bought his yet.

Omo I laff tire that day

MTN really milked us before the arrival of Glo

My own guess was actually 'Movie Disc rentals' 😁🤣🤣.

You rent part 1 & come back later for part 11, cos someone else is still with it.

I think a disc was rented for #50 (I stand to be corrected).

RealityKings1:
Before opening this thread, I somehow knew the particular business it would be about. Wow

Rapmoney:


Yes, you are correct. And that Samsung blue face that has a blinking sensor light.

Lol, I had a room mate who wouldn't let us rest because he had that phone. Every time he goes like "this my phone ehn".

Anijay1212:

When men were boys

Abi when boiz were real men.not this present day Big tros Gen z's

Rapmoney:


If you weren't born then or you were still a kid, you ask questions so that you can be educated. People bought simcards even above that price.

SIM card price started with 30k and was sold with phone of your choice which when added together will give you a price of that range of 68k