Greetings friends, trust you are doing great. The topic for this week's contest is an interesting topic which I couldn't resist just like the way I couldn't resist the opportunity of getting my first phone, hehehe.
Before the advent of mobile phones in my country, what we had here were phone booth, landlines phones and walkie talkie. I didn't get the chance to use the phone booths and walkie talkie but I did with the land lines and it was always fun to use especially when dialing a number. But one thing I didn't much about it was the shrill sound it makes while ringing. It's so noisy and fond of disturbing one's peace. That's why I set my phone on vibration and the volume at minimal.
My first phone was a Huawei handheld phone, can't remember the model again but it was a white colored sleek phone, a beauty to behold and I bought it in year 2005. The phone had an inbuilt battery, no sim card like the other mobile phones, rather the number was encoded in the phone. I can still remember my number - 082-306080, a special one at that, hehehe.
You see eh, that Huawei phone and Nokia 3310, na the same mama abi technology born dem, lol. Very strong phone, I tell you. It doesn't scatter when it falls on the ground like other ones, just pick it up and use. Just like other mobile phones then, the only features it had was just for calls, sms and number storage and some games too.
How I got the phone
It happened that one of the telecommunications company in my country then, Rainbownet Nigeria Limited, a private fixed wireless telephone operator which had its head office at Enugu had opened up a new branch in my city, Aba, and needed marketers to help with the marketing and sale of their products. And then I was scouting for a place to do my one year industrial training so it was a good opportunity for me to have practical experience in my field.
The phone we marketed then was the table tops, as it was called and the technicalities involved in activating and recharging the lines needed constant communication with customer care, hence the need to get a phone, but na where I keep money to buy phone then, hehehe.
After sometime, the company introduced the handheld phones (mobile) which were equally pricey. To encourage workers to get the phone, the company decided to give it out at discounted price and the Huawei was for ₦6,000 which is about 17.91 Hive. You can imagine how valuable ₦6,000 was in year 2005, big money then, hehehe. Other ones were a bit higher so I went for the Huawei which was a better deal for me.
Although giving the phone to workers at discount prices was to encourage us to get phones, it was actually part of a marketing strategy which I later got to know about.
Buying a phone then wasn't in my list of plans but I needed to as it was going to enhance my work. So you see it wasn't for luxury or show off, although somehow I started feeling fly as a proud owner of a mobile phone as at that time, lol. But on the other hand, I was afraid of how my dad will take the news of me buying a phone. Imagine his daughter carrying phone when he had none, lol. Infact it was two days after I got the phone that he became aware and I told him it was for my work, case closed, hehehe.
Owning the phone really helped improve my marketing activities and sales too.
While marketing the company's phones, I didn't really need to talk much about them, my own phone did the talking. I'll just tell the prospects to call any phone number so they can speak with the persons. It was just practical and I tell you, I made massive sales. You know how people get attracted to what they see.
One unique thing about my phone and other ones from the company was that it was a free call within the network, so I can talk as long as I wanted with my contacts in the same network. Another thing, it's connectivity outside the state and even international was one touch and very clear unlike what we experience now with the network providers. I enjoyed using the phone to play games especially the snake game and would be playing the beautiful ring tunes just to entertain myself, lol.
I loved the phone and wouldn't stop showing it off but unfortunately I lost it on my way back from work one rainy evening around 8:00hrs. I had alighted from the taxi and something told me to check if the phone was in my bag, and alas I couldn't find it.
I ransacked my bag, nothing. I wept, cried and crewed 🤣. Oh, it was as if my world came to an end. I didn't know what to do, called the number several times to no avail, no one was picking up, after a while it went off and that was it.
I cried for days, oh how I missed my first phone.
Thank you for reading....
This is my entry to the IndiaUnited Weekly Contest #13
Still the #threadsaddict 😂
Image 1
Image 2 is mine