So, guys it’s my first post this year 2016. Happy New Year again even though you’ve probably heard me say that a million times plus more on the TechCity radio show (Mondays 10.30am on City 105.1fm). I am sitting in my brightly colored chair at the office, reminiscing on technology about 10 years ago. I had a mobile phone at the time and was on Facebook, i think. This was 2006.
If you grew up in Nigeria in the mid to late 90’s, you can very well relate to this article. It’s Thursday anyway, let’s throw it back!
Quick flashback to the emergence of mobile phones in Nigeria and I remember the struggle in secondary school then, when we had 2 Reltel landlines. 2. Yes. One for internet on our e-machines desktop computer (haha) and the other primarily for calls. There was no way the gist you had for your friend could get across until you got home. Sometimes, you are hanging on to a call because once the network bar began to drop, that meant the dreaded “No service” signal was seconds away. If you had spoken for I think, 30minutes at a stretch, the call would be disconnected; and let’s just be real, the battery capacity of those land phones were the truth! The phones would be sitting pretty on the shelf, forgotten, save for when someone called. Ringtone of life! You could hear the ringtone from the other side. Hello? Adele.
Few years later, my dad walked into the house with a “Buddie” starter pack. Yessss. That was the origin of “starter pack”. LOL. Your starter pack actually prepared you for the journey into mobile (GSM phone) life. It had your SIM pack; your SIM pack had a user manual, your SIM, PIN number and PUK code (if you lost your PUK code, you were clueless and a goner) and plenty other paper that I really do not see need for now that I think about it. Starter pack was international passport status at that time. You guarded it with a part of your life. Before telco’s started getting creative and really embraced the concept of mobility.
Those were the days though. Everything, almost everything, was sacred, well kept and carefully packaged. Everything was heavy, no, had weight. Held water. Even words. They were carefully spoken and well seasoned, if you know what i mean. Where did all the years go? Do you think of these things sometimes? What else do you remember? Share them with me 🙂
