…written by Tijjani Muhammad Musa
The need to communicate between two entities,
be it in physical, abstract or in virtual terms has started for man from the
moment he became conscious of the fact that he is not alone on earth. In fact
this exchange of information between one source and its target destination predates
mankind.
Where going by evidences from religious scripts (for those who believe
in faith that is), such crucial exchange started the universe itself, when the divine
command of the word “Be” was uttered by God to nothing and from that
spoken word came forth the “Big bang” that initiated this material world coming
into existence.
It is also a known fact that animals,
which came to the creation scene before mankind, do have the ability to
communicate with each other. Fishes, insects, crawling and walking land
creatures and birds are each known to have a system of communications, a form
of language that can be distinguished as strictly their own.
Using one form of
sound, movement, psychical ability or another they are able to inform
themselves as well as others of beneficial things or of impending danger. And
by such interactions, they able to constantly safe guard their well being and
make progress in their lives.
Man being a social animal cannot be
different and so has found the need to inform and seek for one form of
knowledge or another innate in his creation. This exchange of information starts
between two units of man, the child and the mother from the moment of
conception in a latter’s womb.
Here the fertilized female egg would commence
its unique and amazing journey that usually lasts for about 9 months, emerging
at the end of it, a beautiful, cute and cuddling human baby. Research has shown
that human fetus from the very beginning, establishes a communication
channel between it and its mother.
Through this link, an embryo informs
the mother of all its needs and her body in return provides it with whatever it
is that will ensure its sound development. It is also known that when a mother
is sick, has some damage tissues or is with cancer, the fetus would detect the
part affected and send stem cells to it to effect its repairs.
A symbiotic
relationship that is possible through their ability to communicate with each
other, even at this primitive stage of life, where one entity is contained
within another. Thus for any to think mankind only has the ability to
communicate when a child is able to speak or to understand language is a gross
mistake indeed.
From the moment of birth, a mother and her
infant engage in a form of non-verbal communication via eye contact known as
bonding. The baby automatically seeks for his mother’s eyes and upon finding it, engages it in a speech no one can fully understand. Not even the mother, who
smiles at her bundle of joy with love and affection.
And by instinct or is it
intuition, she finds the desire to say one soothing word or make one soft sound
or another to it. This initiates and encourages the day old baby to start his
or her listening and talking experiences.
Soon the baby expresses his needs by
certain actions, cues and cries, which is usually his form of first oral
speech, if it may be called that. Realizing that his cries communicate and
generate a response from his mother, it becomes a regular form of telling the
mother of his distress and discomfort.
Soon comes the smile and the laughter
with which he shows his pleasure and happiness about whatever is happening to
him. Eventually he utters his first word “Mama” to the delight of the mother,
who encourages him to say some more words, until he becomes able to speak the
language of the mother and her people or society in which he is raised.
And once away from his mother, family
and friends, most of us find the need to reach out and inquire about each other, which is very important to the extent that we either make scratches on cave walls as
done by early man or leave a note for another to read while we are away.
Of
course such notes become letters once sent out from a distance to express our
speech to the recipients at another location. Though serving to feed our need
to communicate, letters and other written forms of information exchange lack
something vital and that is prompt responses or interactiveness as found in
natural conversations.
This problem was soon to be solved
with the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1870. He
created a device that was able to permit two or more persons to have a
conversation in real time via wires, over long distances by converting sound
energy into electrical energy and later back to sound energy again.
This
historic achievement ushered in the era of telephony and much of the distance
that once separated loved ones and business associates was reduced to a simple
dial of numbers, followed by the now popular greeting of “Hello”.
Stationary telephones were soon to be
found almost everywhere, in homes and offices, at bus and train stations,
airports, public places and even on the streets, where with a single coin, one
is able to make a call to anyone, anywhere within the reach of the telephone
receiving terminal.
Landlines as the wire version of these communication
gadgets held sway for more than a century, up until when the stationary telephone
was found to be constraining to development. People were not reached as at when
due and many mishaps that could have been avoidable if only a person is reached
on time necessitated the need to make the telephone mobile.
End of Part One
II
Enter, the mobile phone. In 1973, April
4th to be exact Martin Cooper of Motorola made publicly the first
ever wireless telephone call using a prototype handheld device, the DynaTAC
model. But the dream to carry a pocket-size handheld communication device
started much earlier as depicted by authors in science fiction, books and
movies.
Renown television documentary personality Arthur C. Clarke once predicted its coming in the mid 1980s in
his 1962 Profiles of the Future thus "personal transceiver, so
small and compact that every man carries one." Clarke wrote: "the
time will come when we will be able to call a person anywhere on earth merely
by dialing a number."
The mobile phone started with the 0G
i.e. zero generation handsets which were not cellular in nature, can barely
handle simultaneous calls and of course could barely be affordable. Next
generation mobile phones are labeled the 1G sets from 1973 to mid-1980s.
These
were an improvement on the earlier version, could handle simultaneous calls,
but were still using the analogue system of communication. The second
generation phone or the 2Gsets were introduced in 1991 and these were digitally
based and were on Global System of Mobile or GSM communications technology.
It took a full decade of usage before the 3G digital phones came
on the scene. Launched in Japan and based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access or the W-CDMA which is a technology that supports cellular voice, text
messaging, multimedia services and carry data at very high speed which permits
streaming and broadband internet access.
Next in tow were the 3.5G, 3G+ or Turbo
3G that facilitate higher speed data access or HSPA which allows networks that
are capable of higher data transfer speeds and capacity. We are clearly is the
era of the much hyped about smart phones.
Now, in Nigeria of course telecommunications started with the fixed
or landline telephones, which were the legacy of the British colonial
administration in government offices and houses of the administrative officers.
This later extended to the homes of those senior ranking civil servants, elites
and the rich and wealthy in society. Telephones were limited only to major
cities in the country like Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt
among others. The operating organ was Nigeria Telecommunications company or
NITEL for short.
One can still recall the days, not so
long ago when a person expecting a job interview call, a loved one’s call or a relative living or visiting a country
abroad would either go to an office or visit a house nearby to receive such
calls on a scheduled time.
Also many by now might have forgotten how they would
seek to make a crucial call in a friend’s office or home to the annoyance and
invasion of telephone owners’ privacy. Still, as embarrassing as it may be many
could not help, but encroach on such people’s tolerance thereby testing their
patience.
Eventually, the Thuraya handset, highly
expensive for its call charges and the 090 NITEL mobile phones came on the
scene. The latter proved a frustrating venture, which after paying exorbitantly
and waiting on an imaginary queue for many annoying months to acquire one, was
so disappointing in service delivery; they were more or less like status
symbols.
Both these two carry-around handheld phones reigned together around
the 90s and could be seen being posed around with by the few who could do nothing
else with them but just that, carrying them around. Rarely does anyone see or
hear them make or receive calls with them.
III
In 2001, after Nigeria Communication
Commission (NCC) sold the operating licenses to some GSM companies in January, among which were Econet Nigeria Wireless and Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) in a public auction.
Though MTN made the first GSM network call in
Nigeria on 16 May 2001, it was however the
former (now Airtel) that were the first to commence mobile telecommunication
operations in Nigeria on August 7, 2001. It was soon to be joined by the latter,
which also started its own full telecommunication services provision a few
months later
Based on the past antecedence of
telephone acquisition in Nigeria and how difficult it was to get one in the
past, many thought it was going to be business as usual and so there was a huge
scramble for the new devices by GSM subscribers.
Capitalizing on this fear and
rush, the duo of Econet and MTN seized on Nigerians ignorance about the
market and their gullibility by selling the SIM cards to first time GSM line
owners at very high prices. Some bought their lines for as much as N30,000,
before the euphoria gradually simmered down and lines were being purchased for
anything between N12,000 to N8,000.
Nokia, Sony-Erickson and Samsung
handsets of various designs, models and sizes were the phones that first
received the precious SIM cards of that initial time. As usual it was the elites,
the middle class and corporate guys and girls that first flaunted the lines and
devices. But, soon the initial rush pattered out and the demand started to fall
and the market forces set in to force the prices down and eventually crash.
Thereafter, many could afford to buy their own handsets and line or inherit
phones from their family and friends who could afford to change their handsets
once they realize such devices are becoming common sights in the hands of those
they feel were beneath them. Status symbol played in.
As the prices of both the handsets and
SIM cards fell, the only other avenue for the services providers to capitalize
on was the pricing of the calls. In their efforts to recuperate their
investments on both the licenses and operational costs, MTN and Econet called
upon severally to commence per second billing as obtainable in other parts of
the world where GSM services are offered, they refuse to hear of it, insisting
on the per minute billing they started their operations with.
Not until Globacom, the 4th GSM
service provider launched itself on the Nigerian telephony field with its per
second billing in August 2003, did the first two succumb to the demand of the
populace. This they did in fear of losing their customers, many of whom were
already abandoning their lines for the new lemon green comer.
Glo as they are
called crashed the exorbitant pricing of the GSM calls and were highly
patronized by many Nigerians. What with its being a wholly Nigerian owned GSM
telecommunication company unlike MTN which has roots in South Africa.
Another plus that Glo added to the
Nigerian GSM scene was its introduction of Blackberry or BB phone device. Glo’s
original market plan for it was meant to be strictly for the big boys and girls
in society by making it only available to their postpaid subscribers.
MTN in
its competitive strive however felt otherwise and made the device and its
internet services available for all and sundry.
This move in no small way captured the huge potential of the BB services
for MTN.
As predicted earlier that mobile
phones would become so common among the populace so much so that ordinary folks
like street food vendors, maiguard, bus drivers and their conductors etc would
soon be owners of GSM phones and would be able to communicate just like the
elites in society.
That development has come to pass now. In fact, mobile phone
lines are now being offered for free by the service providers, with customized
phones being sold as cheap as for N1000 together with the SIMs and some
promotional incentives.
IV
Finally, in 2007 Etisalat after
acquiring its license to operate in Nigeria came with juicy promises and an
offer for any interested subscriber to apply for any number of one’s choice to
be customized for the subscriber as he or she joins their network. Many were
optimistic about the new entrant, but the impact many hoped it would make did not see
the light of the day.
Clearly, the trophies to be won in the Nigerian GSM race
have all been won by the head starters who started the race from the on set.
Etisalat just managed to flow with the tide. After all the market about 180-190 million strong was huge and could accommodate more competition.
In 2011, Nigeria celebrated a decade
of GSM operations and MTN in particular, by now the most successful of all the
networks, having the lion share of the market with about 50 million subscribers
had all causes to be thankful to its customers, who have stuck with the network
through the years.
GSM telecommunications has come to stay in the country,
providing not just the needed communications demand of the citizens, but
also job opportunities for many of the working populace as well as
becoming the highest revenue generating industry in Nigeria.
GSM telecommunications has become so
important in our lives now that many people are wondering how Nigerians were
able to survive without it in the first place. It’s ability to make life and business
transactions easier and much more fulfilling is clearly an understatement.
With
its facilitating making and receiving calls, sending short messaging service or
sms texts, multi-media services, conference calls, internet browsing, social
networking and many other telecom services, it is no wonder our mobile phones
have become our most constant companions.
Not just for our personal information
exchange uses, our mobile phones have since assumed a working tool status. By
having several features and applications such as Microsoft office, camera,
voice recorder, global positioning system (GPS), calculator, scale, alarm clock,
planner, calendar and time piece etc, many are finding themselves more and more
attached to their smart phones as a mobile office tool.
Our phones are now our
mini theaters too, allowing us to play music, watch movies, listen to the
radio, play recreational games and much more. Entertainment has never been cheaper,
simpler and much more engaging. Talking about engaging, there are so
many things one can do with his mobile phone now; it is gradually constituting
a distraction to a normal productive life for many an individual.
Not just that,
many are now so into their phones, they are beginning to find companionship and
solitariness in it, so much so that others who deserve some attention from them
are beginning to suffer some neglect as a result of over indulgence in their
mobile gadgets. It is beginning to dawn on many that unless they resist it,
their phones would take over their lives completely, leaving them helpless at
its mercy.
People are so engrossed with their
phones these days, they engage in its usage everywhere they go and in whichever circumstances they find themselves. Making and receiving calls or texting
while driving a car, riding a motorbike and even walking on the streets is
becoming so common now, virtually most users of GSM phones are guilty of the
offensive nuisance.
People are now so inseparable from their phones, they go
into their toilets to poo-poo with them. There are also reports that some even
continue to stare at their phone screens, social networking
on Whatsapp or Facebook while making love. Can anyone just imagine that?
On the family front, many babies these
days have to make sacrifices for their mothers to go to work, leaving them at
the mercy of some mean and nasty nannies, and when their mothers come back and
pick them, they still have to contend with sharing their attention with the mobile phone.
Husbands and wives each
have their own sad stories to tell about how they hate their partner’s phone
for stealing off their quality time. There are now many reported cases of
accidents that could have been avoided if only the phone would be placed in its
rightful place in our lives.
Telling lies have become so simplified
with the mobile phones, it has now become fashionable to be in one place, yet
claim to be at another. The phone has also becoming one of the leading factors
of many sad relationship outcomes. It gives room for all kinds of atrocities
and vices such as fraudulent dealings, scams and 419 set-ups.
GSM phones have
now opened the doors to the innermost parts of our private homes. People can
venture right into your bedroom and talk to your wife or husband, without your
doing anything to stop it. Children are exposed to strangers many would never
have approved their interactions together.
Theft of phones are so rampant, it is
a doubt if there is one user who has not had his or her handset stolen, at
least once. Why armed robbers would always demand for their victims phones once
they stage an operation is left to anyone’s imagination.
And normal thieves
too, find it such a threat to steal a person’s mobile phone at the slightest
opportunity they get. For some it is not losing the phone, cheap or expensive
that is painful, but the virtual content, which could be valuable information
and data that has taken years to collect, which could never be replaced.
A double edge sword, the mobile phone
on the work and business front is contributing towards making money easier, yet
on the family structure, it is completely stripping us of all the things we
hold sacred and valuable.
It has eliminated distances, bringing border back to
their artificial origin of non-existence, turning the world into a virtual,
global village. And now from your very own room you can now talk or walk, buy
or sell, study or play, befriend or fight, engage or disengage, undress and
have sex via your mobile phone with any willing person in the world.
And now as a subscriber of any of the
4 operating networks MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat, what does an ordinary Nigerian
have to say about the advent and performance of the telecom companies? How has
telecommunication and the mobile phones affected their lives?
Knowing its
advantages and disadvantages can anyone imagine life without the mobile phone?
What would you say about the internet and the vast potential it holds for us as
part of the global netizens? Here are some responses:
“…….” *Interviews inserts*
Clearly, it is obvious that despite
its many negative effects, the advantages of having a mobile phone far outweigh
the disadvantages and many would rather be left with their smart companions
than be separated from them. And with their multi-tasking ability, who can say
what next they might be designed to perform for their owners.
The future is so
rich with possibilities, many can’t wait for tomorrow to come. In fact, given
the opportunity, a lot of mobile phone users wouldn’t mind time traveling to
tomorrow to see for themselves which amazing apps await us then.
End.
©2015 Tijjani M. M.
All Rights Reserved
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