Over 16 million Nigerians use GSM phones and investigations showed that the average GSM user in Nigeria spends between $1 and $3 for the recharge cards daily. The poor spend less, while the rich spend more on GSM phone calls.

Many Nigerians spend hours conversing on their GSM phones. Nigerian pupils and students have been seen using GSM phones to exchange lessons from their studies.

GSM subscribers in the most populous country in Africa have complained about the high tariffs, but the GSM operators said, they spend millions of dollars on power supply and high cost of maintenance in Nigeria.

The MTN Nigeria Communications Limited spends over $6million monthly on power supply for operating in Nigeria due to the epileptic power supply and outages.