THANKS to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who contributed significantly to the deregulation of the telecommunications industry. Since, then there has been an influx of service providers like MTN, Airtel, Glo and more recently Etisalat. They have eased the way we communicate. But at the same time, they can be very frustrating. So, if you use any of these service providers any one of these listed things discussed in this piece must have happened to you. Enjoy!
The number you are dialing is…
You have dialed a number several times but what you hear is “the number you have dialed is not available. Please try again later.” Meanwhile, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the number you are calling. The only explanation for this is that the network is bad. But nothing is done. This same thing will happen you making emergency calls.
Unsolicited text messages and calls
Despite the efforts of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to end this ‘torment’ of receiving unsolicited text messages and calls, it is yet to pay off. Nigerians receive loads of unwanted calls and text messages. Imagine you are expecting an alert. You eventually receive a text message. You excitedly checked your phone and it is your service provider’s text message. The anger…
Your account balance is low…
Most times when you are almost out of credit, that voice will tell you “your account balance is low, please recharge.” In other cases and perhaps due to network failure, you may have enough credit on your phone but you still receive that message.
Underhand charges
Some service providers can charge indiscriminately. You didn’t subscribe to a particular message, they deduct the money from your account. You didn’t renew your data subscription, they will automatically renew it for you. You call them, they will apologise but will not stop removing your money.
Calling customer service for hours
Twitter has largely eased the burden of reaching the customer service of any service provider. However, for persons who doesn’t have access to the internet, they have to call customer service. It can take time before the computer picks your call. God help you if after calling, and they eventually pick, but the call drops. Sorry, you have to try again.
Buying SIM for 10,000
MTN and Vmobile (airtel), there is God oooh! Before SIM cards became free, older Nigerians bought SIM cards for as much as N10,000, N20,000 and even N40,000. Then, you were a ‘god’ if you own a phone.
You must use more than one service provider
Since there are now double SIM phones, many Nigerians now use more than one service provider. If one disappoints, they switch to the other. This is just to cushion the effect of network failure. Both SIMs cannot be down at the same time.
Adeniyi Ogunfowoke, a PR Associate at Jumia Travel, sent in this piece
