The history of mobile phone communication can be traced back to 2001 after the privatization of the telecom sector and the defunct NITEL was relieved of its monopoly of providing telecommunication services to Nigerians.
The first mobile telecom company to enter into the telecom space of the country was ECONET (now Airtel). A year after, MTN followed. Two years after, the first and only indigenous telecom company, Globacom, joined. Presently, there are at least ten mobile communication network providers in Nigeria, but the major players are Airtel, Mtn, Glo and Etisalat.
Almost every phone user in Nigeria has one complaint or the other to make about the mobile network providers. These complaints range from overcharges, indiscriminate sending of unsolicited and junky messages, charges on services not subscribed to and above all, poor network and customer services.
Despite that all these telecom companies are trying to bridge the communication gap between people, the distress and discomfort that usually come with their services most times defeat their usefulness.
TheCapital went out to get people’s views and opinions about the services of the mobile network providers in the country.
An mtn subscriber complained that in a day, he usually receive at least ten unsolicited messages and almost all users of this particular network can relate to this.
Another mobile user, Afeez Adekunle who works with a media company in Lagos spoke with TheCapital, he siad: “My problem with all these network providers is their internet charges. It is too expensive and exploitative. Imagine buying 100megabite for N1000, this sort of thing only happens in Nigeria because those that are meant to regulate these things have been bribed to keep their mouth shot. Even those networks that tell you to buy 2 gigabite for lesser amount, you realise that after little downloads, you have already exhausted your data”.
TheCapital also went to the street to interview some traders. One Mr Kabiru, a lotto agent, expressed his anger while speaking to us, he said: “ Mtn wants to kill me with messages. Every day I receive messages from MTNPlay, Jeremia9v23, Isaiah60, 33240, 33128 and others. Please help us beg them to stop disturbing me with stupid sms or else I will stop using it”
Another user, Mrs Ademola, a civil servant in Lagos state has this to say:
“ My own problem with Glo and Mtn is that whenever I recharge, they always remove N50 and sometimes N100 from my money for a caller tunes I never subscribed to. One day, I almost went mad because I was stranded and I needed to call my husband to come and pick me. I recharged my phone with the last N100 with me and immediately, MTN removed everything, I wanted to cry because that was my last hope. That day I had to beg a man to help me make the call to my husband, that was how MTN made me a beggar on that day. When I latter called their customer care, they said I subscribed for a caller tunes which I never did. These network operators are just making life uncomfortable for us, our government should come to our rescue”.
