NewStats: 3,261,704 , 8,174,849 topics. Date: Friday, 30 May 2025 at 08:36 AM 4i5a62

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.

You bought your line promo

Line was boarded at 70 k

Official price 55k Econet
MTN 60 K

Quelme:
Those were the days. Sim card was like an holy Grail.

Nokia 3310 reigned supremo.
Sagem
Motorola
Sendo
Samsung blue screen
Alcatel

Everything has it time and season. Vanity indeed....

You forgot to mention Triump.

AntiZikist:


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.

Lmao!
Here you are bragging about what your dadi and mumi made possible for you to see while arguing about age with someone who purchased them for herself with her hard earned money.
I wish you the best in life, omo mummy.

Hmmm, funny enough I have this business then, the business is cool and I made cool cash doing it selling recharge cards then

Proudlyngwa:


You bought your line promo

Line was boarded at 70 k

Official price 55k Econet
MTN 60 K

Whatever. But I bought my line compete with sagem phone.

HelenaWills:

Lmao!
Here you are bragging about what your dadi and mumi made possible for you to see while arguing about age with someone who purchased them for herself with her hard earned money.
I wish you the best in life, omo mummy.

GSM is an upgrade on cellular network.

Later on visafone will bring back the hybrid LAN and GSM network.

Guy I no be your mate.

AntiZikist:


GSM is an upgrade on cellular network.

Later on visafone will bring back the hybrid LAN and GSM network.

Guy I no be your mate.

Omo mummy.

AntiZikist:


Whatever. But I bought my line compete with sagem phone.

That was around 2004 if I am correct, because I left Lagos 2005 and they had already done that promo but it was certainly not 99/2000

AntiZikist:


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.

What has hatred got to do with this? You just use words without knowing the meaning or when to apply it!

Of course I might not be your mate I was born in the 60's.

The same way you called OP a kid because he probably doesn't know about NITEL pay phone is the same way you too probably doesn't know about land lines so you are also a kid to someone like me! Like come in phases if you don't get my explanation and you call it hatred that is your business!

Ijaya123:


You forgot to mention Triump.

Trium

Not trump

I bought my Nokia 3310 in 2004 and my Sim card for 15k.

You guys can see why I get angry when small children of these days insult me and other senior men online.

When I was a big boy in the 90s, most of them, their parents haven't even met talk more of getting married, talk more again of conceiving them.

Respect your elders, so your days can be long.

Gone are the days whereby you had to trek to a distant phone booths and queue before you could speak to your family and friends over the paid public phone.

I relate back then when you will buy recharge card from mtn for a certain amount then load it ironically it expires within 7 days after loading irrespective of whether the airtime finish or not before the 7 days.
Then eventual introduction of mid night call where you load N100 in the morning or anytime before midnight then you keep vigil until 12a.m to start making free call until 4.30am.A whole lot happened during that mid night Era. Someone I know lost his job cos he sleeps during work hours after a long mid night call with his girl friend each day before his eventual sack.

Rapmoney:


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

Hahahaha, that was my first phone, as I bought it, I had to keep money for d SIM card which was then valued at 18k. I had to pay by instalment till I liquidate it. The blue eye Samsung was (if not d hottest) phone at d time, one of d hottesthottest in my school then. Ladies will hang it on their chest like necklace.

Omo, men full this thread.

We all don old Sha.

When men were boys.

Going over these stories and people's experience brings back sweet memories. When we all enjoyed the country.

God bless Nigeria. Nigeria will be great again.

uuzba:

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.

This is where and when

These photos, taken on 25th November, 2019, show a Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) phone booth taken over by series of flash posters as it rots away in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Photos: Sodiq Adelakun/ChannelsTV

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.

That's not what killed it, it was the introduction of cheaper phones & sim card that killed it, vodafone and the likes.

If phones and sim card are still expensive, people will not be able to afford it and they will still be calling through phone centres

hartson:
I relate back then when you will buy recharge card from mtn for a certain amount then load it ironically it expires within 7 days after loading irrespective of whether the airtime finish or not before the 7 days.
Then eventual introduction of mid night call where you load N100 in the morning wait until 12a.m to start making calls until 4.30am.A whole lot happened during that mid night Era. Someone I know lost his job cos he sleeps during work hours after a long mid night call with his girl friend each day

We can't thank Glo enough for the PSB change they brought while MTN scammed us.

Hahahah. Me too

Ijaya123:


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

How many people can government employ?

As an entrepreneur I know what I contend with, wrt Govt policies and implementation vis what politicians and civil servants dish out daily in bureaucratic processes.

charles614:
Nokia, Trium, Samsung and Sagem

Oluwabugyyolo:
SIM card 68k

Way above in 2002, my brother bought it then for about 80k and it took him 3days before he could get it.

That 80k then will be like 500k now, or even more.

Basic123:

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

Stop thinking like a clown.

GSM booths and POS are the people’s alternative to gsm affordability and mini protest against cashless policy-cash has only moved from the Banks to the streets.

trium:


We can't thank Glo enough for the PSB change they brought while MTN scammed us.

Honestly.MTN scammed Nigerians big time from year 2000 when GSM showed up in naija.I bought my Sim 5k around last week of September then by Oct 1 independent day it was slashed to 1k promo then a week after it came down to 500.
Omo, the thing pain me eeee

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

Don't mind him,as at 2001 the dollar rate was about #100 so in in actual sense the sim cost $680 as at then which presently is #1.1 million naira.
So we are talking of a sim card of #1.1 million naira in present day ,it was not funny I that it was GLO that spoil the business for econet and MTN,in those days I used to think that sim card is one big device with ,I didn't set my eye on sim card until the price dropped to #5000,

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

That’s human instinct

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.

The whole telecommunications industry was deregulated which allowed other players apart from NITEL to operate in Nigeria.

NITEL was sold and not privatized?

goslowgoslow:


Of course I might not be your mate I was born in the 60's.

The same way you called OP a kid because he probably doesn't know about NITEL pay phone is the same way you too probably doesn't know about land lines so you are also a kid to someone like me! Like come in phases if you don't get my explanation and you call it hatred that is your business!

Can we please leave the age debate? We were all born at a certain time and no one should be ashamed of anyone's age.
"I no be your mate"
So what? You are likely to become an ancestor faster than the Person you are showing off to. What I wanted to respond to before the digression is Mulitlinks. I was looking for a clip f Levi hosting the show on NTA

My sim was 70k that year lol I Don lost the sim I never fit retrieve na airtel o

SIM card was never above 20k. MTN was selling for 20k while Econet sold for 18k. I was in the industry then. My Airtel of today was bought for 18k.

Anyone who bought above these prices must have gotten it from black market!

Meh i don hustle sha.. I don tire

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.

The days when price of anything still goes down in Nigeria. Nowadays, everything seems to make the law of gravity look like a joke.