THE SIMPLEST DEFINITION OF DEREGULATION TO A LAYMAN

So many people got their SIM cards for a whooping sum of N25,000 in year 2000 when telecom operators birthed in Nigeria for the very first time. I actually got mine later for N15,000 during one of MTN’s promo sales in 2001 or 2002 after hard labour work on construction sites with my father who happens to be a builder. Even after buying the sim card it took me another episode of labour to buy my first fairly used phone to enjoy the MTN service. I would not want to bother you with the story of how I recharge my phone thereafter because network in my school then was like looking for SALVATION. For those of us who can afford NITEL cards, we were able to make calls after queuing up for hours in the old compound of NITEL office where only two phone box is available for use by the lecturers, students, civil-servants and indigenes of the town called ILARO.

Fast forward to this day, virtually all the sim cards are sold for FREE in the market and they even come with FREE airtimes and other combo packages. How was this feat achieved if not for the deregulation of those Telecom sectors that was once accessible and enjoyed by the privileged few in the society. I could also recollect vividly, an aunt I lived with at Omole estate phase 1 was using CELLULAR phone at the time and it was like a tall dream for me owning such gadget but today I have bought phones worth more than MINIMUM WAGE so many a time. The crash in tariffs of telecom service providers actually started with GLO network owned by Mike Adenuga, GLO opened our eyes to many infractions from MTN, ECONET and other telecom service providers

, they made us realized that call rate could be billed per SECONDS, oops!. They also made us realized that SIM Cards could be sold for lesser price because it is still their property, also calls/sms within the same network was further slashed and there were better and improved customer service giving rise to CALL CENTERS job openings here and there. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the arrival of ETISALAT network provider whose presence made me to love them till today, they accord us the opportunity to earn rewards upon rewards from recharging your lines, earn rewards from making calls, and earn rewards from referrals and many other goody bags.

The latest DEREGULATION effects happens to be in the area of DATA service, as data junkie myself, I have been looking forward to a day when the prices of the data bundles of different telecom operators in Nigeria would eventually crash just like call tarrifs and the D-DAY has finally arrived. It started with Glo, thereafter MTN joined and subsequently Etisalat followed suit by joining the league of those offering 1.5GB data at N1000. Other plans have been reviewed as well making 3.5gb data now to cost

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