GSM Communication in Nigeria

GSM Communication in Nigeria: The effects and at whose detriment?

Ogu Reginald Ekene

This article tries to give a detailed overview of the GSM communication in Nigeria. It points on both the negative and positive effects of GSM communication in Nigeria. Also included in this article is the question section where the reader is expected to evaluate and determine who is suffering as a result of the GSM communication, is it the government, the network providers or the customers? It is left for you to answer.

GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) is a digital mobile telephony system that is widely used in Europe and other parts of the world.

The History of GSM Communication in Nigeria can be traced to the deregulation of the Telecommunication industry which gave birth to the GSM Revolution that started by the year 2001 till the present date. Since embracement, GSM Communication has witnessed a tremendous growth in the number of subscribers from barely few elite in the society to over 100 million subscribers.

One thing to note about GSM communication in Nigeria is that it is one of the few things/technologies (if not the only one in this category) to be accepted and embraced by both the poor and the rich in the country. If you give the reason for the wide acceptance of the GSM technology to be that “it is a means of communication and it has nothing to do with the conventional posting of letter done by the NIPOST”, I will prove you wrong by telling you that email is also a means of communication which also eliminated the activities of NIPOST. The question still remains, WHY GSM?

While trying to answer the question above, I will like to give you a tip. Before the GSM communication was adopted in the country, the prominent means of telephony was solely handled by the NITEL. Many are pointing fingers to the activities of the NITEL as being inefficient and masked with corrupt practices. At a time, one old man was telling me that corruption will soon be a thing of the past in Nigeria. I asked him what he meant and how does he think that what he said is obtainable. He told me that “since NITEL later became a thing of the past, corruption will still be a thing of the past”, he started narrating his past experience with NITEL “at a time if you go to NITEL to make calls, you will see long queue, the staff of NITEL were feeling like gods insulting whoever they want, but today most of them have been sacked and where is NITEL…”

Early days of GSM

During the early days of GSM communication in Nigeria, only the rich afforded a phone. The cost of a network SIM card was approximately 45% of ₦100,000.00. The notable network operators/providers by then included but not limited to MTN and GLO. The GSM industry subsequently brought both direct and indirect employment to Nigerians. In terms of direct employment, the network providers employed capable Nigerians. When it comes to indirect employment, most Nigeria youth quickly opened business centers where they were selling recharge cards, and operating pay phones that people come and make calls and pay as they go (although the latter case has almost phased out).

At a time, due to some reasons the network operators were instructed to conduct a biometric registration of its subscribers. With the love Nigerians have for GSM communication, we were not reluctant to register.

Today, more capabilities have been incorporated in the GSM communication than the capabilities it had back then in 2001. One can easily take pictures with the phone, send and receive emails, easily connect to the internet etc. (only to mention but a few).

Effects of GSM

The effect of GSM to the Nigerian society is bidirectional in the sense that it has both positive and negative effects. Discussing all the effects here will be too tasking as I promise to make this details as concise as possible.

Mbosire K. concluded his work (The Many Ills of GSM in the Nigerian Society) by agreeing that GSM has brought positive development to the country, he further advised that all hands must be on deck to sensitize Nigerians that “GSM is not a do or die thing”. He never failed to highlight the negative impacts of GSM communication to the Nigeria society which include: increase in the occurrence of road accident as a result of making calls while driving, increase in theft as most youths now engage in GSM robbery as profession, increase in pornography etc.

Whose Detriment?

Detriment in this context has to do with either a damage or loss. The question on the state of GSM communication in Nigeria is at whose detriment is the operation of GSM communication?

GSM communication has ruled the Nigerian society; it detects the way we do things in this country. Frankly speaking, when it comes to the reliability of the GSM communication Nigeria, as a Communication Engineer, I will rate the reliability of GSM services in Nigeria below 65%.

The GSM communication in Nigeria has gotten to the extent of a subscriber receiving up to 100 unnecessary/deceitful SMS per day. Most of such SMS could trick you into entering a contract where they will be deducting close to ₦50.00 per day from your account, AT WHOSE DETRIMENT?

Most of the GSM service providers have advanced to the extent of placing calls randomly to its customer(s) to tell them some things which the subscribers are not interested and may not be interested to hear. At the reception of such calls, subscribers after a deep sigh will hang the call(s). The network providers by placing such calls have ended up achieving something (distracting their subscriber/customer from his/her work). AT WHOSE DETRIMENT?

Instead of preaching against the African time ideology, the answering machines of the customer care lines of the network providers encourage the African time ideology. For example, when you call the customer care line, the machine will tell you “dear customer, we have 17 customers ahead of you, it will take 12 Minutes for a customer care agent to speak to you”. Don’t be surprised that after 1hr nobody has answered your call. You may even be frustrated to the extent that you hang up the call after a long time. AT WHOSE DETRIMENT?

The pressing detriment is the case where some network providers have been generating SMS to their customers telling them to go with a valid identity card to any of their offices and failure to do so have left many Nigerians being disconnected from the network. Most Nigerians have to travel from their rural resident to nearest town (with their hard earned money) to prevent their lines from being disconnected. Many now leave their daily businesses to go and verify their account. In fact, recently whenever am passing any office of the GSM network providers, due to the crowd I see these days what strikes my mind is the biblical feeding of the 5000 by Jesus Christ. I stopped one day in one of the branch office of one of the network provider to verify my own account. Due to the crowd they asked us to photocopy our valid ID card and submit it with the sum of ₦500.00. Some business oriented Nigerians then mounted their photocopying machine close to the network provider’s office and was collecting ₦50.00 to photocopy an ID card. Imagine the cost and time wastage. What had happened to the previous SIM registration which everybody participated in? AT WHOSE DETRIMENT?

Conclusion

The network providers should go and revise their business strategies on how customers should be treated and handled with utmost respect in order not to lose them . Efforts should be made to thank Nigerians by the network providers on our philanthropic gestures as well as our patience, we have spent and sacrificed a lot.

Though the GSM communication has brought much benefit to Nigerians, the activities of the network providers should be checked/ monitored effectively by active regulatory bodies and not the kind of monitoring we have seen in the past.