GSM Mobile phone use came into Nigeria in 2001 with Econet. As usual, they started in Lagos as the commercial center of the country and those of us in other areas just heard about experiences of its users. We only saw it on television and heard about it on the radio. It had become one of the fantastic things that were to remain a fantasy to those of us without a lot of thousands to spend on its acquisition. Then in came MTN, then known as “your best connection”. Apart from the competition and its wider coverage, it was a little lower than Econet in cost. By 2003, a large number of Nigerians could afford mobile phones because of the flood of options from Nokia and Samsung especially. I could afford a phone too. My father bought my very first mobile phone, a Samsung R220 popularly called “blue face” and I joined the league of GSM users. However, I had to squeeze out N12,000 to get an MTN sim card.
